Virtual Structure Based Spacecraft Formation Control with Formation Feedback

Formation control for multiple vehicles has become an active research area in recent years. Generally there are three approaches to this problem, namely leaderfollowing, behavioral, and virtual structure approaches. In this paper, formation control ideas for multiple spacecraft using virtual structure approach are presented. If there is no formation feedback from spacecraft to the virtual structure, the spacecraft will get out of formation when the virtual structure moves too fast for the spacecraft to track or the total system must sacrifice convergence speed in order to keep the spacecraft in formation. The spacecraft may also get out of formation when the system is affected by internal or external disturbances. To overcome these drawbacks, a novel way of introducing formation feedback from spacecraft to the virtual structure is illustrated in detail. An application of these ideas to multiple spacecraft interferometers in deep space is given.