Libration Synchronization Control of Clustered Electrodynamic Tether System Using Kuramoto Model

Abstract

This paper proposes a new configuration for a tethered satellite system, named the 'clustered electrodynamic tether system.' This configuration consists of multi-electrodynamic tethered satellite systems located in a record disk orbit, which is a useful orbit for formation flight of multisatellite. The main difference of the clustered electrodynamic tether system from usual constellation flight configurations is that the clustered electrodynamic tether system uses tethers. This new configuration, thus, can be interpreted as constellation flight both toward out-of-plane direction using a record disk orbit, and in-plane direction using tethers. If librational motion of the clustered electrodynamic tether system is synchronized, the clustered electrodynamic tether system can serve as a platform system to periodically capture launched payloads and to move them to higher altitude, or a system to periodically observe the atmosphere at different altitudes at the same time. To synchronize the librational motion of the clustered electrodynamic tether system, control methods based on the Kuramoto model are proposed. The Kuramoto model is a mathematical model that can be used to describe synchronized behavior of a large set of coupled oscillators. In this paper, the proposed control methods are validated by numerical simulations.