Control of Electromagnetic Satellite Formations in Near-Earth Orbits

摘要

Electromagnetic formation flying is a novel concept of controlling the relative degrees of freedom of a satellitenformation without the expenditure of fuel by using high-temperature superconducting wires to create magneticnelectromagnetic formation flying. Because of inherent nonlinearities and couplings, the dynamics and controlnproblem associated with electromagnetic formation flying are difficult, especially for near-Earth operations. Thisnpaper presents the application of nonlinear adaptive control laws that enable formation maintenance andnreconfiguration. An approach to control allocation as the solution of an optimization problem is also proposed. Thenaccumulation of angular momentum in the presence of Earth’s magnetic field is an issue with electromagneticnformation flying and ways of managing it by exploiting the nonlinearity of magnetic dipoles using polarity switchingnare presented as a solution. Closed-loop nonlinear simulation results are also presented to demonstrate the feasibilitynand importance of the control scheme described for electromagnetic formation flying for near-Earth operations.