EuroGNC 2019 Paper Abstract

Paper WeM3.2

Silvestrini, Stefano (Politecnico di Milano), Pesce, Vincenzo (Politecnico di Milano), Lavagna, Michelle (Politecnico di Milano)

Distributed Autonomous Guidance, Navigation and Control Loop for Formation Flying Spacecraft Reconfiguration

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Spacecraft dynamics and control 1" (WeM3), Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 11:00−11:30, BL281.2

5th CEAS Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control, April 3-5, 2019, Milano, Italy

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 26, 2024

Keywords Spacecraft orbit guidance, Multi-vehicle cooperative decision and control, Navigation

Abstract

This paper presents a continuous low-thrust control algorithm coupled with the decentralized navigation filter, suitable for distributed space systems reconfiguration. The dynamics of the satellites, representative of J2-perturbed elliptical orbits, is expressed in terms of the relative orbital elements (ROEs). Since the relative orbit determination measurements are typically referred to the Cartesian state of each satellite, a linear mapping between the set of ROE and the Cartesian coordinates expressed in the local-vertical-local-horizontal (LVLH) reference frame is derived. The desired set of ROE at each time-step is determined based on the contribution of counter-acting Artificial Potential Fields (APFs) defined in the ROE space. A feedback control is designed to track the desired state, whose stability is analysed using Lyapunov theory. The guidance, navigation and control algorithms are tested in a high-fidelity numerical orbit propagator for two different operational scenarios, one of which is accurately chosen to show a representative collision avoidance manoeuvre. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm for reconfiguration manoeuvres involving relative distances in order of 10^2 m with limited fuel consumption and constrained available thrust (in the order of 1mN). The proposed algorithm enhances the flexibility of traditional reconfiguration with collision avoidance strategies respecting the robustness requirement and the computational effort.