Optimization and adaptation of consensus penalty terms for the attitude synchronization of spacecraft formation
Kewen Zhang, Michael A. Demetriou · AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Conference · 2013
This paper focuses on the temporal adjustment of the consensus weights used to enforce attitude synchronization of spacecraft formation. Earlier works utilizing constant synchronization gains are revisited and extended to the case of edge-dependent synchronization gains; such a general case includes the node-dependent gains and the already examined case of constant gains. Furthermore, adaptation schemes for the time-variation of the synchronizing gains in constructed via Lyapunov redesign methods. Such an adaptation aims to adjust the individual gains in proportion to the distance between the states of neighboring spacecraft. Numerical studies examine the effects of both constant and adaptive gains, which further support the theoretical predictions. Additionally, the numerical studies help provide insights on the choice of optimal gains by penalizing a combination of the deviation-from-the-mean and the rotational kinetic energy.