Distributed Control of Spacecraft Formation via Cyclic Pursuit: Theory and Experiments
Name
Ramirez-2009-Distributed Control of Spacecraft Formation via Cyclic Pursuit Theory and Experiments.pdf
Size
1.9 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Ramirez, Jaime L.
Pavone, Marco
Frazzoli, Emilio
Miller, David W.
Date Issued
July 2009
Journal
American Control Conference, 2009. ACC '09
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Citation
Ramirez, J.L. et al. “Distributed control of spacecraft formation via cyclic pursuit: Theory and experiments.” American Control Conference, 2009. ACC '09. 2009. 4811-4817. ©2009 IEEE.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In this paper we study distributed control policies for spacecraft formations that draw inspiration from the simple idea of cyclic pursuit. First, we extend existing cyclic-pursuit control laws devised for single-integrator models in two dimensions to the case of double-integrator models in three dimensions. In particular, we develop control laws that only require relative measurements of position and velocity with respect to the two leading neighbors in the ring topology of cyclic pursuit, and allow the spacecraft to converge to a variety of symmetric formations, including evenly spaced circular formations and evenly spaced Archimedes' spirals. Second, we discuss potential applications, including spacecraft coordination for interferometric imaging and convergence to zero-effort orbits. Finally, we present and discuss experimental results obtained by implementing the aforementioned control laws on three nanospacecraft on board the International Space Station.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACC.2009.5160735
