• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.405-414
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• 2006

Satellite formation flying has become a critical issue in the aerospace engineering because it is considered as an enabling technology for many space missions. Thus, many nonlinear control theories have been developed for the tracking problem of satellite formation flying, which include full-nonlinear dynamics, external disturbances and parameter uncertainty. In this study, nonlinear adaptive control law is developed using an adaptive backstepping technique to solve the relative position tracking problem of the satellite formation flying in the presence of mass uncertainty and the bounded external disturbance. Simulation studies are included to demonstrate the proposed controller performance. The proposed controller is shown to guarantee the system stability against the external bounded disturbances in the presence of mass uncertainty.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.365-374
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• 2003

Satellite formation flying is currently an active area of research in the aerospace engineering. So it has been researched by various authors. In this study, a tracking controller using sliding mode techniques was designed to control a satellite for the satellite formation flying. In general, Hill's equations are used to describe the relative motion of the follower satellite with respect to the leader satellite. However the modified Hill's equations considering the $J_2$ perturbation were used for the design of sliding mode controller. The extended Kalman filter was applied to estimate the state vector based on the measurements of relative distance and velocity between two satellites. The simulation results show that the follower satellite tracks the desired trajectory well by thruster operations based on the sliding mode control law.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.56-63
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• 2005

Some methods have been presented to avoid collisions among satellites for satellite formation flying mission. The potential function method based on Lyapunov's theory is known as a powerful tool for collision avoidance in the robotic system because of its robustness and flexibility. During the last decade, a potential function has also been applied to UAV's and spacecraft operations, which consists of repulsive and attractive potential. In this study, the controller is designed using a potential function via sliding mode technique for the configuration of satellite formation flying. The strategy is based on enforcing the satellite to move along the gradient of a given potential function. The new scalar velocity function is introduced such that all satellites reach the goal points simultaneously. Simulation results show that the controller drives the satellite toward the desired point along the gradient of the potential function and is robust against external disturbances.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.177-184
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• 2006

An orbital design method of the formation initialization based on the relative orbital element method is presented. It firstly constructed the relative motion equation of the satellite formation flying in terms of the leader and followers' orbital elements. Then the equation was simplified when the orbit eccentricity of the leader satellite was small. And according to the satellites' mission, a general design method for the relative trajectory was proposed. The advantage of this method is that one can get a very simple analytical formula of each follower satellite's orbital elements when the orbital eccentricity of the leader satellite is zero. The simulation results show that the method is effective.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.41-41
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• 2003

Satellite formation flying is currently an active area of research in the aerospace engineering. There are many categories for this research such as the determination of initial conditions, formation keeping, configuration and reconfiguration. In this study, a tracking controller using sliding mode techniques is designed to control a satellite for the satellite formation flying. In general, Hill's equations are used to describe the relative motion of the follower satellite with respect to the leader satellite. But, the modified Hill's equations considering J2 perturbation were used for the design of sliding mode controller. Sliding mode control law causes the chattering phenomenon because it is a discontinuous control. Dead-zone was used to avoid the chattering. The Extended Kalman filter was applied to estimate the state vector based on the measurements of relative distance and velocity between two satellites.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2003

Satellite formation flying is the placing micro-satellites with the same mission into nearby orbits to form a cluster. Clohessy-Wiltshire equations are used to describe the relative motion and control strategies between satellites within a cluster, which are known as Hill's equations. Even though Hill's equations are powerful in determining initial conditions for the satellite formation flying, they can not accurately express the relative motion under J2 perturbation. Some methods have been developed for the determination of initial conditions to avoid limits of Hill's equation. This paper gives a new method of determining initial conditions using mean elements. For this research mean elements were transformed to osculating elements using Brouwer's theory and the orbit was propaeated with the consideration of J2-J8 to get a relative position. The results show that satellites within a cluster are maintained in the desired boundary for long period and the method is effective on a fuel saving for satellite formation flying.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.361-374
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• 2008

Recently, satellite formation flying has been a topic of significant research interest in aerospace society because it provides potential benefits compared to a large spacecraft. Some techniques have been proposed to design optimal formation trajectories minimizing fuel consumption in the process of formation configuration or reconfiguration. In this study, a method is introduced to build fuel-optimal trajectories minimizing a cost function that combines the total fuel consumption of all satellites and assignment of fuel consumption rate for each satellite. This approach is based on collocation and nonlinear programming to solve constraints for collision avoidance and the final configuration. New constraints of nonlinear equality or inequality are derived for final configuration, and nonlinear inequality constraints are established for collision avoidance. The final configuration constraints are that three or more satellites should form a projected circular orbit and make an equilateral polygon in the horizontal plane. Example scenarios, including these constraints and the cost function, are simulated by the method to generate optimal trajectories for the formation configuration and reconfiguration of multiple satellites.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.135-138
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• 2007

The present work is to estimate the stability region of the State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) controlled system, which is used for a decentralized coordinated attitude control in satellite formation flying. In this research, currently emerging methods which estimate region of attraction for the SDRE controllers are introduced and the methods are applied to attitude control systems. The results guarantee the stability of the given decentralized coordinated attitude control system in satellite formation flying.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.141-149
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• 2010

This paper contains impulsive maneuver which considers fuel consumption balance of chief satellite and deputy satellite in satellite formation flying. Thrust input is obtained by Lagrange' Multiplier method which is constructed by cost function with weight parameter of each satellite. Energy matching constraint is applied for boundedness of relative orbit, and theoretical solutions are verified by simulation results. Simulations are divided into two scenarios, with or without air-drag effect. This paper's results are expected to be used in real satellite formation flying, when fuel-balancing impulsive maneuver for relative orbit boundedness is needed.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2020

This study designs and analyzes satellite formation flying concepts for the Small scale magNetospheric and Ionospheric Plasma Experiments (SNIPE) mission, that will observe the near-Earth space environment using four nanosats. To meet the requirements to achieve the scientific objectives of the SNIPE mission, three formation flying concepts are analyzed: a cross-shape formation, a square-shape formation, and a cross-track formation. Of the three formation flying scenarios, the cross-track formation scenario is selected as the final scenario for the SNIPE mission. The result of this study suggests a relative orbit control scenario for formation maintenance and reconfiguration, and the initial relative orbits of the four nanosats meeting the formation requirements and thrust limitations of the SNIPE mission. The formation flying scenario is validated by calculating the accumulated total thrust required for the four nanosats. If the cross-track formation scenario presented in this study is applied to the SNIPE mission, it is expected that the mission will be successfully accomplished.