Trajectory Control in Formation Flying

Paper number

IAC-05-C1.1.03

Author

Dr. Takeya Shima, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Katsuhiko Yamada, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan

Coauthor

Mr. Shoji Yoshikawa, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan

Year

2005

Abstract

Formation flight of two or more spacecraft keeping specified relative positions has potential capabilities such as stereo mapping, equivalent large aperture construction, radar interferometry, etc. and has attracted much attention in recent years. Several national projects are planned to demonstrate formation flight control technology.

Generally, changing and keeping spacecraft relative positions require active position control and consume fuel. In order to save total fuel consumption, both formation change and formation maintenance are important. Some formation configurations that do not require much fuel consumption for their maintenance have been proposed. 

In this paper, the trajectory design of the spacecraft relative position change is proposed from the viewpoint of minimum-fuel consumption. It also considers disturbances such as J2 perturbation. The discrete control law is also proposed in order to realize the designed trajectory. The controller is based on the two-degree-of freedom control law and makes the control errors zero by two thruster firings. The controller achieves the deadbeat property of the closed loop system and also guarantees the robustness to the feedback gain decrease. 

Numerical studies of the formation construction are executed in order to verify the trajectory control. Three spacecraft are in-line parking at the initial time. Simulation results show that the circular formation can be constructed after the thruster firings based on the designed trajectory control. 

In summary, this paper proposes the basic method for constructing a formation flying. It proposes a trajectory design of minimum-fuel consumption for spacecraft relative position change and a robust discrete control law that achieves deadbeat property of the closed loop system. 

Abstract document

IAC-05-C1.1.03.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-05-C1.1.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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