Analysis and Distributed Control of a Formation of Intelligent Satellites

Abstract

Perturbation based methods for determining initial conditions and shaping satellite formations to accommodate nonlinearity of the differential gravitational acceleration as well as eccentricity of the reference orbit have been developed. Control laws for formation maintenance as well as reconfiguration, valid for large formations and eccentric reference orbits have been developed via filter based LQR designs and period matching. An analytical solution to the relative motion problem has been obtained by using a unit-sphere description of the motion. This approach converts the problem of formation control into an attitude control problem. A sub-optimal strategy for reconfiguring a formation using impulsive thrust has been developed that does not require any off-line optimization. The results of this approach have been compared with those obtained from numerical optimization. An analytical technique has also been developed for designing formations for large and high eccentricity relative orbits.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 28, 2003
Accession Number
ADA414012

Entities

People

  • K. T. Alfriend
  • S. R. Vadali

Organizations

  • Texas Engineering Experiment Station

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Astronautics
  • Classification
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Eccentricity
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Mechanics
  • Optimization
  • Orbital Elements
  • Orbits
  • Relative Motion
  • Satellite Constellations
  • Space Flight
  • Spacecraft
  • Students

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Structural Dynamics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers