Spacecraft formation flight may increase data coverage area and accuracy for a myriad of space-based experiments. To prevent ground operations support from scaling with number of satellites, we propose a control architecture that describes a formation as a virtual body, such that the operator controls the group as if it were a single entity. We overview the components of a satellite formation flying architecture then outline a constrained multi-agent planning approach to decompose the specified formation geometry into an optimized set of synchronized satellite waypoint sequences. To illustrate our approach, we describe a two-satellite planar Earth-orbiting formation for far-field interferometry and show results from path optimization for circular and elliptical orbits.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Autonomous satellite formation assembly and reconfiguration with gravity fields


    Contributors:
    Atkins, E. (author) / Pennecot, Y. (author)


    Publication date :

    2002-01-01


    Size :

    1069601 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    2.1105 Autonomous Satellite Formation Assembly and Reconfiguration with Gravity Fields

    Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2002



    FORMATION RECONFIGURATION FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

    Koo, T. J. / Zelinski, S. / Sastry, S. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2003