Leader-follower type relative position keeping in satellite formation flying via robust exponential stabilization

Abstract

Satellite formation flying is an essential technology in both the current and the future aerospace industry. Conducting a fast and safe flying formation between satellites is always a key requirement for successful mission accomplishment. This paper addresses a leader-follower type relative position keeping in satellite formation flying via a novel robust exponential stabilization. This paper establishes an exponentially convergent relative position keeping taking account of various external disturbances that cannot be modeled into current formation dynamics, along with a set of time-varying model parameters and measurement noises. The condition for an exponential convergence is established by decomposing the positive definite matrix used in Lyapunov function candidate into several element-wise submatrices. Through numerical simulations, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.