A Formation Flight Experiment for Research in Control of Interconnected Systems

This article discusses the design process for a formation flight experiment constructed at Cornell University. The primary motivation for the testbed is to explore control design and analysis for interconnected systems. These systems are comprised of many similar units that interact directly with their nearest neighbors, and that have sensing and actuating capabilities at every unit. The resulting interconnected systems often display rich and complex behavior, even when the units have tractable models and interact with their neighbors in a simple and predictable manner. In addition to formation flight, there are many examples of such engineered systems, including automated highway systems [1], satellite constellations [2], cross-directional control in paper processing applications [3], and micro-cantilever array control for massively parallel data storage [4]. In this class one can also consider lumped approximations of partial differential equations including the deflection of beams, plates, and membranes, and the temperature distribution of thermally conductive materials [5] embedded with sensors and actuators. Among the challenges associated with controlling these types of systems, the two most important are