This paper considers the problem of relative position control for multiple spacecraft formation flying. Specifically, nonlinear dynamics describing the motion of a follower spacraft relative to a leader spacecraft are developed for the case where the leader spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit. Next, a Lyapunov-based, nonlinear, adaptive control law is designed which guarantees global asymptotic convergence of the position tracking error in the presence of unknown, constant or slow-varying spacecraft masses and exogenous disturbance forces. In addition, a formation initialization constriant is developed for the ideal, unperturbed, periodic relative motion of the spacecraft formation which serves as a desired, relative motion trajecotry. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the efficacy of the formation initialization methodology and the adaptive controller performance.
展开▼
