Robust Load-sharing Control of Spacecraft Formations

Authors:	Garcia-Sanz Mario, Public University of Navarra, Spain Hadaegh F.Y., NASA-JPL, United States
Topic:	7.3 Aerospace
Session:	Space Control
Keywords:	Formation Flying, Multi-spacecraft, Robust Control, Co-operative control.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design of autonomous and collaborative control strategies to govern the relative distances among multiple spacecraft in formation with no ground intervention. A coordinate load-sharing control structure for formation flying and a methodology to control their dynamic models with slow time-varying and uncertain parameters are the main objectives of this work. The method is applied to a deep space formation example, where the uncertainty in spacecraft fuel masses is also considered.