ROBUST DISTRIBUTED CONTROL FOR FORMATION FLYING ALONG HALO ORBIT

This paper is devoted to the robust distributed control method for multiple spacecraft formation flying along Sun-Earth L2 halo orbit, in the presence of uncertain disturbances. A distributed controller is proposed using a nonlinear saturation function, based on mutual communication topology modeled by a di-rect/undirect graph. Global convergence is proved for the proposed controller. Numerical simulation considers a regular tetrahedral formation as a rigid-body, with switching topologies, communication time delays, external disturbances and parameter uncertainty considered. By the proposed control technique, robust formation keeping and formation reconfiguration is achieved, and the ‘rigid’ configuration is approximately maintained.