Attitude coordination of satellite swarms with communication delays

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the fast attitude coordinated control problem for rigid satellite swarms with communication delays. Design/methodology/approach - Based on behavior-based control approach, the attitude control system is designed to guarantee that the attitude of the satellite swarm converge to a dynamic reference state in finite time. A fast sliding mode is developed to improve the convergence rate and robustness of the control system. All the effects of communication delays, parameter uncertainties and external disturbances are taken into account simultaneously, and the communication topology of the satellite swarm can be arbitrary types. Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the analytic results. Findings - Despite the existence of communication delays, parameter uncertainties and external disturbances, the stability of the closed-loop system can be successfully guaranteed and the proposed control strategies are effective to overcome these unexpected phenomena subject to arbitrary communication topology. Originality/value - This paper introduces a fast terminal sliding mode control method which can guarantee the fast convergence of the attitude state of the satellite swarm in the presence of communication delays, switched communication topology, parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.