Research Information System
AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference 2014, San Diego, CA, United States Of America, 4 - 07 August 2014
Formation attitude and relative position tracking control of a two-spacecraft utilizing coulomb forces as well as thrusters is discussed. The nonlinear optimal tracking control is realized using the Approximating Sequence of Riccati Equations (ASRE) control method. Nonlinear equations of motion of the formation are properly manipulated to obtain suitable state dependent formulations for orbit radial, along track and orbit normal formation configurations. In the ASRE approach, the nonlinear problem is reduced to a sequence of linear-quadratic and time-varying approximating problems. After number of iterations, the converged control input from the approximating sequence is applied to the nonlinear system. The success of the approach in reconfiguring the formation is demonstrated through nonlinear simulations.