Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Journal Article Version
Accepted Manuscript
First Page
1
Last Page
23
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Abstract
This paper develops a model predictive control based formation flying algorithm for small spacecraft with a fixed thrust magnitude constraint that models the limitations of thrusters which have little to no ability to scale the thrust magnitude. The control instead calculates the optimal thrust duration which results in a mixed integer linear program (MILP). A guidance trajectory and control deadband are implemented to mitigate the increased computation time and possibility of control chattering that arise from the MILP formulation. A three spacecraft formation is tested in a series of simulations with varying dead- band widths and the performance in terms of control usage and error correction are measured. The control is found to be successful in maintaining a spacecraft formation although the performance is found to be highly dependent on the relationship between the minimum possible thrust time and the deadband width.
Recommended Citation
Akagi, John and Smith, Tyson K., "Small Satellite Formation Control for a Fixed Thrust Propulsion System" (2024). Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications. Paper 299.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/sdl_pubs/299