Distributed attitude consensus of spacecraft formation flying

The consensus problem of the distributed attitude synchronization in the spacecraft formation flying is considered. Firstly, the attitude dynamics of a rigid body spacecraft is described by modified Rodriguez parameters (MRPs). Then global stable distributed cooperative attitude control laws are proposed for different cases. In the first case, the control law guarantees the state consensus during the attitude synchronization. In the second case, the control law ensures both the attitudes synchronizing to a desired constant attitude and the angular velocities converging at zero. In the third case, an attitude consensus control law with bounded control input is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness and validity of the control laws are demonstrated by simulations of six rigid bodies formation flying.