Distributed Adaptive Attitude Synchronization of Multiple Spacecraft With Event-Triggered Communication

This article investigates the distributed adaptive attitude synchronization problem for multiple rigid spacecraft with unknown inertial matrices and event-triggered communication. Under a directed topology condition, two distributed event-based adaptive attitude synchronization schemes are proposed. By introducing a reference system for each spacecraft, a distributed adaptive control algorithm is first developed, based on which a group of rigid spacecraft can be synchronized at a common attitude with zero angular velocity. Then, the case without angular velocity measurements is considered. By redesigning the reference system and resorting to a pseudovelocity filter, an event-based adaptive output feedback attitude synchronization algorithm is presented. It is shown that with the proposed control schemes, all the closed-loop signals are uniformly bounded and the attitude synchronization can be achieved, while Zeno behavior in each spacecraft can be excluded. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.