A nonlinear control design technique for formation flight of a constellation of satellites

The objective of this paper is development of a formation control and station keeping control law for a constellation of satellites in a circular orbit. It is shown that by utilizing feedback linearization or nonlinear compensation technique an efficient nonlinear control design strategy may be implemented that leads to solutions valid for larger set point regulation and station keeping problems. To assess the quality of the proposed control scheme, we compare its performance with that of linear and nonlinear design techniques in a number of simulation case studies. The obtained results demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed nonlinear technique as compared to other results available in the literature. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed nonlinear control technique are also presented for formation control and station keeping