Coordinated Attitude Control of Flexible Spacecraft Formations via Behavior-based Control Approach

This paper is to investigate the coordinated attitude control problem for flexible spacecraft formations. Considering the attitude maneuver control problem of a formation composed of flexible spacecraft, two classes of decentralized attitude coordination control laws using behavior-based control approach are proposed. The first class of controllers can steer the attitude states of the flexible spacecraft formation to a desired reference state asymptotically in the absence of disturbances and communication delays. The second class of controllers is an improved one which simultaneously takes into account the effects of external disturbances and communication delays. The improved control strategies are effective to overcome these unexpected phenomena subject to arbitrary communication topologies. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed control schemes.