A distributed formation maintenance strategy using relative orbit for multiple spacecraft with little restrictions on formation geometry

A distributed strategy is designed to maintain the formation of multiple spacecraft with little restrictions on formation geometry. The formation is chained, and its only restriction on geometry is that the relative distances between a spacecraft and its neighbours have upper bound. A chained leader-follower formation strategy that each spacecraft follows its neighbour as the leader is designed. Relative position and velocity are used in getting the delta-V of orbit maneuver for each spacecraft, makes the strategy is fully distributed. The numerical simulation of formation maintenance case for 4 satellites is performed to validate the proposed strategy, and the results show the formation maintenance mission is completed.