COORDINATION AND CONTROL OF MULTIPLE MICROSPACECRAFT MOVING IN FORMATION

The problem of coordination and control of multiple microspacecraft (M S) moving in formation is considered. Here, each MS is modelled by a r igid body with fixed center of mass. First, various schemes for genera ting the desired formation patterns are discussed. Then, explicit cont rol laws for formation-keeping and relative attitude alignment based o n nearest neighbor-tracking are derived. The necessary data which must be communicated between the MS to achieve effective control are exami ned. The time-domain behavior of the feedback-controlled MS formation for typical low-Earth orbits is studied both analytically and via comp uter simulation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implemen tation of the derived control laws, and the integration of the MS form ation coordination and control system with a proposed inter-spacecraft communication/computing network.