Optimal Control For Satellite Formation Keeping

This chapter presents two kinds of optimal control-based satellite formation keeping strategies. Firstly, a real-time optimal control law in a leader-follower frame is developed for satellite formation keeping in elliptic orbits. The proposed control law can prioritize between fuel consumption and control accuracy subject to the control saturation constraints. Then, decentralized control using only local relative measurements is proposed for satellite formation keeping in mildly elliptic orbits. Optimal guaranteed cost control law is applied to the resulting linear time-varying (LTV) system with uncertain parameters. The proposed decentralized formation control architecture is completely decentralized and scalable.