Satellite Formation Flying Control by Using Only Angle Measurements

Abstract

This paper investigates a practical formation control problem of multi-satellite system, in which a group of small satellites are required to reach and maintain a desired geometric configuration under communication and measurement constraints. Toward this goal, we consider each satellite uses its local coordinate systems and senses its neighboring satellites to obtain angle measurements. A formation control scheme using only the angle measurements is proposed to form the desired configurations. Moreover, the triangular and polygonal configuration cases are developed, in which the sum of interior angles of polygons is utilized to guarantee the stability of the determined final configuration. In particular, motivated by formation rigidity principles which mean that satellites' formation is seen as a multi-point framework which need to be rigid to guarantee the uniqueness of the shape, we propose a formation determination approach to construct a rigid square configuration, and proves that, compared with existing schemes, the absolute position of each satellite and the knowledge of the communication topology are not needed for the proposed formation control law. Moreover, since the angle measurements are scalars and sensed with respect to the local coordinate system, the proposed angle-based formation control law is more robust against the misalignment of measurement coordinates. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed control laws.