Cyclic formation control for satellite formation using local relative measurements

This paper introduces a cyclic formation control design for satellite formation using circulant matrix. Each satellite controls itself by using only the local relative states from itself to its two neighbouring satellites. The local relative states can be obtained by local line-of-sight measurements. The formation control problem with n satellites is thus reduced into stabilization problem of a single satellite with the same relative dynamics, individualized by a specific scalar. The scalar takes the values of nonzero eigenvalues of a circulant matrix which represents the topology of relative measurements among satellites. The modified relative dynamics can be viewed as linear system with uncertain parameters and an optimal guaranteed cost control law can be applied. Simulation results are presented to show the efficiency of the proposed cyclic formation control for satellite formation flying.