the problem of relative motion control for spacecraft formation flying in eccentric orbits is considered in this paper. due to the presence of nonlinear dynamics and external disturbances, a robust fuzzy sliding mode controller is developed. the slopes of sliding surfaces of the conventional sliding mode controller are tuned according to error states using a fuzzy logic and reach the pre-define...

The focus of this paper is the spacecraft formation flying problem where the formation switches successively among multiple shapes, the number and the composition of spacecraft in the group may change among these shapes, and some spacecraft may be faulty. The whole flying process is modeled as a state-varying switched system. The formation stability and fault tolerability are analyzed by using ...

Formation Flying is the concept that multiple spacecraft can be arranged in a formation to perform tasks that are not possible with a single spacecraft, or tasks that can be done more efficiently or inexpensively with a group of small spacecraft. One of the main engineering problems to be overcome is that of orienting or pointing a spacecraft to a very high degree of precision. Many approaches ...

This work presents a distributed estimation and control architecture for formation flying spacecraft. We show how spacecraft can individually create a local estimate of the formation and create their own control action using that estimate. Proofs are provided to show that such a scheme is asymptotically stable and spacecraft will reach consensus on the formation states.

Abstruct-Formation flying is defined as a set of more than one spacecraft whose states are coupled through a common control law. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of spacecraft formation flying control (FFC), which encompasses design techniques and stability results for these coupled-state control laws. We divide the FFC literature into five FFC architectures: (i) Multiple-Input Multip...

Several upcoming European and American space missions will be operated using a number of spacecraft flying in formation. The associated scientific challenges are demanding, both with respect to the construction of the spacecraft as well as to the mission design. For instance, energy efficient trajectories and corresponding control laws that enable precision formation flying over long periods of...

Specialized drift recovery and station keeping algorithms were developed for the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiments 4 and 5 (CanX-4 & CanX-5) formation flying mission (launched 30 June 2014), and successfully verified on orbit. These algorithms performed almost exactly according to predictions. The highly successful CanX4 and CanX-5 formation flying demonstration mission was completed in N...

Formation flying is a key technology for deep space and orbital applications that involve multiple spacecraft operations. Imaging and remote sensing systems based on radio interferometry and SAR require very precise (subwavelength) aperture knowledge and control for accurate relative data collection and processing. Closely tied with the Orion and TechSat21 projects, this work describes the ongo...