Improved order-reduction method for cooperative tracking control of time-delayed multi-spacecraft network

This article investigates the order-reduction method for multi-spacecraft cooperative tracking control problems considering non-uniform time delays. The tracking error system is constructed as a linear time-varying (LTV) system since the orbit of the reference point is an ellipse. To facilitate the controller design, a model transformation method is proposed to transform the LTV system into a linear time-invariant (LTI) system with norm-bounded uncertainties. By using the sliding-mode control (SMC) technique, a delay-dependent cooperative tracking controller is designed to guarantee multiple followers to track the leader. Then, an order-reduction method is proposed to reduce the order of sufficient conditions in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which make sure that the tracking error system is asymptotically stable. A numerical example is finally provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed controller and the improved performance of the order-reduction method.