Adaptive Bearing-based Spacecraft Formation Control

In this paper, the spacecraft formation control problem without neighbor’s position and velocity measurement information is investigated. We introduce the bearing rigidity theory into spacecraft formation control and a formation consisting eight spacecrafts is considered. An adaptive bearing-based spacecraft formation control protocol is proposed to achieve spacecraft formation considering external disturbance and model error. Each spacecraft in the formation just needs the bearing information about its neighbors, which can reduce the communication burden greatly in formation control. We conduct the controller’s stability analysis by using Lyapunov method and illustrate the convergence of the spacecraft formation system. At last, numerical simulations of the spacecraft formation flying system illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.