Nonlinear control of multiple spacecraft formation flying using the constraint forces in Lagrangian systems

Getting inspiration from the constraint forces in the classical mechanics, we presented the nonlinear control method of multiple spacecraft formation flying to accurately keep the desired formation arrays. Considering nonlinearity and perturbation, we changed the question of the formation array control to the Lagrange equations with the holonomic constraints and the differential algebraic equations (DAE), and developed the nonlinear control for design of the follower spacecraft tracking control laws by solving the DAE. Because of using the idea of the constraint forces, this approach can adequately utilize the characteristic of the dynamic equations, i.e., the space natural forces, and accurately keep the arbitrary formation array. Simulation results of the circular formation keeping with the linear and nonlinear dynamical equations were included to illuminate the control performance.