AUTONOMOUS DISTRIBUTED LQR/APF CONTROL ALGORITHMS FOR CUBESAT SWARMS MANOEUVRING IN ECCENTRIC ORBITS

Spacecraft formation flying has shown to be promising approach to enhance mission capabilities. Nevertheless, formation flying presents several control challenges which escalate as the numbers of elements in the formation is increased. The objective of this paper is to develop decentralised control algorithms to regulate the station-keeping, reconfiguration and collision avoidance of spacecraft in formation around eccentric reference orbits using the combination of a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and an Artificial Potential Function (APF). Within this control scheme, the LQR will provide station-keeping and reconfiguration capabilities toward desired positions, while optimizing fuel consumption and the APF will ensure collision free manoeuvres between the elements of the formation during manoeuvres. The controller is designed under the assumption of continuous thrust as a standard LQR problem using the Pontryagin minimum principle, an APF based in normalized Gaussian functions and the Tschauner and Hempel (TH) equations as the relative dynamics model.

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