Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Astrodynamics

Publisher

Springer

Publication Date

2023

Journal Article Version

Accepted Manuscript

First Page

1

Last Page

38

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Abstract

The desire to fly small spacecraft close together has been a topic of increasing interest over the past several years. This paper presents the development and analysis of a model predictive control based framework that is used with the D’Amico relative orbital elements (ROEs) to maintain the desired trajectories of a cluster of spacecraft while also allowing freedom to maneuver within some allowable bounds. Switching surfaces based on the ROE constraints contain the full state of the system, allowing for fuel reduction over other approaches that use the Hill-Clohessy-Wiltshire equations. The formation and boundary constraints are designed such that no two agents have overlapping regions, allowing the vehicles to maintain safety of flight without continually maintaining the trajectories of other agents. This framework allows for a scalable method that can support clusters of satellites to safely achieve mission objectives while minimizing fuel usage. This paper provides simulated results of the framework for a three spacecraft formation that demonstrates a 67% fuel reduction when compared to previous approaches.

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