Attitude and Phase Synchronization of Formation Flying Spacecraft: Lagrangian Approach

This article presents a unified synchronization framework with application to precision formation flying spacecraft. Central to the proposed innovation, in applying synchroniza- tion to both translational and rotational dynamics in the Lagrangian form, is the use of the distributed stability and performance analysis tool, called contraction analysis that yields exact nonlinear stability proofs. The proposed decentralized tracking control law synchronizes the attitude of an arbitrary number of spacecraft into a common time-varying trajectory with global exponential convergence. Moreover, a decentralized translational tracking control law based on phase synchronization is presented, thus enabling coupled translational and rotational maneuvers. While the translational dynamics can be adequately controlled by linear control laws, the proposed method permits highly nonlinear systems with nonlinearly coupled inertia matrices such as the attitude dynamics of space-craft whose large and rapid slew maneuvers justify the nonlinear control approach. The proposed method integrates both the trajectory tracking and synchronization problems in a single control framework

Spacecraft Position and Attitude Formation Control using Line-of-Sight Observations

This paper studies formation control of an arbitrary number of spacecraft based on a serial network structure. The leader controls its absolute position and absolute attitude with respect to an inertial frame, and the followers control its relative position and attitude with respect to another spacecraft assigned by the serial network. The unique feature is that both the absolute attitude and the relative attitude control systems are developed directly in terms of the line-of-sight observations between spacecraft, without need for estimating the full absolute and relative attitudes, to improve accuracy and efficiency. Control systems are developed on the nonlinear configuration manifold, guaranteeing exponential stability. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the desirable properties of the proposed control system

Advances in Spacecraft Attitude Control

Spacecraft attitude maneuvers comply with Euler's moment equations, a set of three nonlinear, coupled differential equations. Nonlinearities complicate the mathematical treatment of the seemingly simple action of rotating, and these complications lead to a robust lineage of research. This book is meant for basic scientifically inclined readers, and commences with a chapter on the basics of spaceflight and leverages this remediation to reveal very advanced topics to new spaceflight enthusiasts. The topics learned from reading this text will prepare students and faculties to investigate interesting spaceflight problems in an era where cube satellites have made such investigations attainable by even small universities. It is the fondest hope of the editor and authors that readers enjoy this book

Inertia-Free Spacecraft Attitude Tracking with Disturbance Rejection and Almost Global Stabilization

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76737/1/AIAA-41565-705.pd

Attitude Estimation and Control Using Linear-Like Complementary Filters: Theory and Experiment

This paper proposes new algorithms for attitude estimation and control based on fused inertial vector measurements using linear complementary filters principle. First, n-order direct and passive complementary filters combined with TRIAD algorithm are proposed to give attitude estimation solutions. These solutions which are efficient with respect to noise include the gyro bias estimation. Thereafter, the same principle of data fusion is used to address the problem of attitude tracking based on inertial vector measurements. Thus, instead of using noisy raw measurements in the control law a new solution of control that includes a linear-like complementary filter to deal with the noise is proposed. The stability analysis of the tracking error dynamics based on LaSalle's invariance theorem proved that almost all trajectories converge asymptotically to the desired equilibrium. Experimental results, obtained with DIY Quad equipped with the APM2.6 auto-pilot, show the effectiveness and the performance of the proposed solutions.Comment: Submitted for Journal publication on March 09, 2015. Partial results related to this work have been presented in IEEE-ROBIO-201

Asymptotic and finite-time almost global attitude tracking: representations free approach

In this paper, the attitude tracking problem is considered using the rotation matrices. Due to the inherent topological restriction, it is impossible to achieve global attractivity with any continuous attitude control system on $SO(3)$. Hence in this work, we propose some control protocols achieve almost global tracking asymptotically and in finite time, respectively. In these protocols, no world frame is needed and only relative state informations are requested. For finite-time tracking case, Filippov solutions and non-smooth analysis techniques are adopted to handle the discontinuities. Simulation examples are provided to verify the performances of the control protocols designed in this paper.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1705.0282