Orbit and attitude control for satellite formation flying

• Main Author: Wu, Baolin.
• Other Authors: Wang Dan Wei
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Control and instrumentation::Control engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/46258
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis addresses the problems of orbit and attitude control for satellite formation flying. This thesis starts off with a comprehensive review of previous work related to trajectory optimization of formation maneuver, control strategy of formation keeping and attitude synchronization of satellite formation. Subsequently, the thesis presents the following five main parts: Part I focuses on the design of a fuel-optimal maneuver strategy to reconfigure satellite formation using low thrust propulsion system. We cast it as an optimization problem with a desired final satellite formation configuration subject to collision avoidance constraints on the paths of the chief and all deputy satellites. The satellite terminal orbit states corresponding to this desired formation configuration are ensured by imposing energy-matching condition and final geometry configuration constraints in the problem formulation. The resulting nonlinear optimal control problem is converted into a nonlinear programming problem by the application of Legendre pseudospectral method.