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Cluster flight control for fractionated spacecraft on an elliptic orbit

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Abstract

This paper deals with the stabilization of cluster flight on an elliptic reference orbit by the Hamiltonian structure-preserving control using the relative position measurement only. The linearized Melton’s relative equation is utilized to derive the controller and then the full nonlinear relative dynamics are employed to numerically evaluate the controller’s performance. In this paper, the hyperbolic and elliptic eigenvalues and their manifolds are treated without distinction notations. This new treatment not only contributes to solving the difficulty in feedback of the unfixed-dimensional manifolds, but also allows more opportunities to set the controlled frequencies of foundational motions or to optimize control gains. Any initial condition can be stabilized on a Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser torus near a controlled elliptic equilibrium. The motions are stabilized around the natural relative trajectories rather than track a reference relative configuration. In addition, the bounded quasi-periodic trajectories generated by the controller have advantages in rapid reconfiguration and unpredictable evolution.

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Acknowledgments

The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11172020 and 11432001), and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (4153060).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Ming Xu & Yuying Liang

  2. DFH Satellite Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100094, China

    Tian Tan

  3. Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Lixin Wei

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  1. Ming Xu
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  2. Yuying Liang
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  3. Tian Tan
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  4. Lixin Wei
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Correspondence to Ming Xu.

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Xu, M., Liang, Y., Tan, T. et al. Cluster flight control for fractionated spacecraft on an elliptic orbit. Celest Mech Dyn Astr 125, 383–412 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-016-9685-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-016-9685-0

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