Built on the combined strength of decentralized control and the recently introduced virtual structure approach, a decentralized formation scheme for spacecraft formation flying is presented in this paper. Following a decentralized coordination architecture via the virtual structure approach, decentralized formation control strategies are introduced, which are appropriate when a large number of ...

abstract. — Spacecraft are complex systems that involve different subsystems with multiple relationships among them. For these reasons, the design of a spacecraft is a time-evolving process that starts from requirements and evolves over time across different design phases. During this process, a lot of changes can happen. They can affect mass and power at the component level, at the subsystem l...

Propeller failure is a major cause of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crashes. While conventional systems struggle to address this issue due underactuation, overactuated platforms can continue flying with appropriate fault-tolerant control (FTC). This article presents robust FTC controller for an UAV platform composed quadcopters mounted on passive joints, offering input redundancy a...

This paper will present recent advances in algorithms developed to achieve accurate on-line ID. These algorithms use and reference the MCRLS ID algorithm [1]. Initial mass-property ID algorithms as developed for the X-38 v.201 spacecraft and Mini-AERCam [2] are updated and extended here. Experimental results validating a subset of these algorithms on the MIT SPHERES spacecraft in zero-g aircraf...

The ground-based spacecraft simulator is a useful tool to develop and verify new control laws required by modern spacecraft applications. In order to simulate the space environment with the ground-based spacecraft simulator, the effects of gravity should be minimized. In this paper, a three-axis rotational rigid spacecraft simulator on a spherical air-bearing system is considered. The method of...

This paper describes technology to support a new paradigm of space science campaigns. These campaigns enable opportunistic science observations to be autonomously coordinated between multiple spacecraft. Coordinated spacecraft can consist of multiple orbiters, landers, rovers, or other in-situ vehicles (such as an aerobot). In this paradigm, opportunistic science detections can be cued by any o...

A Hierarchical Model-Based Reasoning Approach for Fault Diagnosis in MultiPlatform Space Systems Amitabh Barua, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2010 Health monitoring and fault diagnosis in traditional single spacecraft missions are mostly accomplished by human operators on ground through around-the-clock monitoring and trend analysis on huge amount of telemetry data. Future multiplatform space mis...

Spacecraft autonomy has the potential for effecting significant cost savings in mission operations by reducing the need for dedicated ground staff. In an autonomous operating mode, operators will communicate only highlevel goals and deadlines directly to the spacecraft. The spacecraft will then perform its own planning and scheduling, decomposing a goal into a set of sub-goals to be achieved wi...