Robust predictive control of satellite formations

Formation keeping control design for formations in eccentric Earth orbits is considered. The overall control design follows a non-hierarchical control architecture based on virtual structure approach. For the local level control, the linear parameter varying model describing the relative motion of member satellites is approximated by an uncertain model with polytopic uncertainty and an infinite horizon robust MPC is used that efficiently handles model uncertainty as well as state and control constraints while minimizing the fuel requirement. Also, a scheme for switching on/off of the individual satellite controllers for minimizing overall fuel consumption is explored. The performance of this control strategy is studied with an extensive nonlinear satellite formation simulation. Simulation results show the effective performance of the overall control strategy.