Satellite Formation Flying Controller Design Using an Optimal Decentralized Approach

The main contribution of this paper is to design an optimal feedback control law that uses only output measurements for a hybrid satellite formation architecture. The formation controller design procedure consists of two steps: (i) designing an initial stabilizing decentralized dynamic output feedback controller and (ii) solving an iterative optimization problem for finding an optimal decentralized controller. Unlike the conventional centralized controller problem, the design of a stabilizing decentralized controller is not trivial in general. Therefore, a decentralized pole placement technique is employed to obtain the controller of step (i). Step (ii) will then improve this design by providing a guaranteed cost decentralized controller. Simulation results will be presented showing that not only the optimal decentralized controller requires less communication bandwidth in comparison with its centralized counterpart but also that it spends less control energy.