................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ ii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... ...

.......................................................................................................................................................... II Preface ............................................................................................................................................................ III Table of Figures ........................................................

Acknowledgements I thank my supervisor, Professor Emiritus Aarne Halme, and instructor, Tomi Ylikorpi, for granting me the freedom to go far away from Finland, to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to study autonomous docking on the Axel rover. Tomi was particularly instrumental in arranging and establishing contacts at NASA, and throughout the thesis , continued to provide guidance and logist...

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer my thanks to my supervisor Dr Carsten Keßler and my co-supervisors Prof Dr Jorge Mateu and Prof Dr Pedro Cabral for their willingness to supervise me. Their interest, support and guidance were of great importance for the progress of this work. At times of despair, their positive attitude helped me to pick up the pace and regain confidence. I would like...

ii Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Prof. José Júlio Alferes, of the New University of Lisbon, for guiding me through the entire research process. I would also like to thank to the professors of CENTRIA for the assistance they provided me during my year at UNL, specially to Prof. for everything they taught me. I am also thankful for the...