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Published March 2009 | Published
Journal Article Open

Application of Synchronization to Formation Flying Spacecraft: Lagrangian Approach

Abstract

This paper presents a unified synchronization framework with application to precision formation flying spacecraft. Central to the proposed innovation, in applying synchronization 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 oscillator phase synchronization is presented, thus enabling coupled translational and rotational maneuvers. Although 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 spacecraft 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.

Additional Information

© 2008 AIAA. Received 22 February 2008; revision received 24 September 2008; accepted for publication 24 September 2008. Presented as Paper 6861 at the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head, South Carolina, 20–23 August 2007. This work has benefitted from stimulating discussions with David W. Miller at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Bong Wie at Iowa State University, and Jesse Leitner at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. S.-J. Chung thanks Insu Chang for carefully reviewing the paper. The authors would like to acknowledge the constructive feedback from the Associate Editor (Hanspeter Schaub) and anonymous reviewers.

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