Formation and maneuver control of multiple spacecraft

In this paper, we propose a novel control scheme that enables a group of multiple spacecraft to maneuver according to a desired trajectory while the internal shape of the group is ensured to converge to a prescribed formation structure. The main innovation of this paper lies in the design of a special decomposition that decomposes the dynamics of the group into two parts: dynamics of the overall group motion (average system), and the dynamics of the group internal formation (shape system). In addition, the decomposition has the property that the energies of the average and shape systems preserve that of the original system. Thus, the maneuver of the group can be achieved by controlling the average system, while the formation control can be achieved by controlling the shape system. The proposed control scheme can also be extended hierarchically for multiple groups. Simulation is performed to show the efficacy of the proposed control.