6 DOF Coordinated Control Using Cyclic Pursuit for Spacecraft Formation

A 6 degree of freedom (6-DOF) attitude and orbit coordinated control method using cyclic pursuit is proposed for spacecraft formation flying. Firstly, a decentralized coordinated tracking cyclic pursuit algorithm is developed based on the linear second-order cyclic pursuit control algorithm. Then, a cyclic pursuit algorithm which can match the natural period configuration of satellites is improved based on a similarity transformation to the rotation matrix. Next, a proposed 6-DOF coordinated control method which uses cyclic pursuit algorithm is applied to both orbital and attitude dynamics formulated as the integrated Lagrangian equations. The three dimentional circular formation composed of multiple spacecraft can be realized by the proposed algorithm and the attitude of an arbitrary number of spacecraft can be synchronized to the constant reference states simultaneously. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.