Decentralized coordinated attitude control for satellite formation flying via the state-dependent Riccati equation technique

The goal of the present study is to develop a decentralized coordinated attitude control algorithm for satellite formation flying. To handle the non-linearity of the dynamic system, the problems of absolute and relative attitude dynamics are formulated for the state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) technique. The SDRE technique is for the first time utilized as a non-linear controller of the relative attitude control problem for satellite formation flying, and then the results are compared to those from linear control methods, mainly the PD and LQR controllers. The stability region for the SDRE-controlled system was obtained using a numerical method. This estimated stability region demonstrates that the SDRE controller developed in the present paper guarantees the globally asymptotic stability for both the absolute and relative attitude controls. Moreover, in order to complement a non-selective control strategy for relative attitude error in formation flying, a selective control strategy is suggested. This strategy guarantees not only a reduction in unnecessary calculation, but also the mission-failure safety of the attitude control algorithm for satellite formation. The attitude control algorithm of the formation flying was tested in the orbital-reference coordinate system for the sake of applying the control algorithms to Earth-observing missions. The simulation results illustrate that the attitude control algorithm based on the SDRE technique can robustly drive the attitude errors to converge to zero.