Modeling and Robust Controller Design for Formation Flight Ground Tests Based on Air-Bearing Table

A ground simulation system is developed to analyze and validate relative navigation,guidance,control and inter-satellite communication techniques involved in satellite formation flight.The simulation system mainly consists of a 3m-by-4.5m air-bearing table and two satellite simulators with two degrees of freedom of translation and one degree of freedom of rotation.Relative navigation is realized by means of a vision camera mounted on the air-bearing table and an indoor GPS system.The bluetooth technique is adopted for inter-satellite communications.Dynamics with parameter uncertainties describing the relative motion between the two simulators are derived and a robust H∞ control law with pole placement is developed based on the dynamics.Simulation tests such as attitude synchronization and formation keeping are performed to analyze and validate relative navigation,relative control and inter-satellite communication for formation flight satellites.The ground simulation system developed in this paper provides meaningful results for space formation flight missions.