Co-ordination and control of distributed spacecraft systems using convex optimization techniques

Formation flying of multiple spacecraft is an enabling technology for many future space science missions. However, the co-ordination and control of these instruments poses many difficult design challenges. This paper presents fuel/time-optimal control algorithms for a co-ordination and control architecture that was designed for a fleet of spacecraft. This architecture includes low-level formation-keeping algorithms and a high-level fleet planner that creates trajectories to re-size or re-target the formation. The trajectory and formation-keeping optimization algorithms are based on the solutions of linear and integer programming problems. The result is a very flexible optimization framework that can be used off-line to analyse various aspects of the mission design and in real time as part of an onboard autonomous formation flying control system. The overall control approach is demonstrated using a nonlinear simulation environment that includes realistic measurement noises, disturbances, and actuator nonlinearities.