Free Will Arbitrary Time Consensus-Based Distributed Spacecraft Formation Control

A distributed formation control scheme is proposed for achieving a desired formation of multiple spacecraft in orbit around the Earth within a free will arbitrary settling time, over an undirected communication network. Using the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations as relative position dynamics model for the spacecraft in a circular reference orbit around the Earth, the proposed control strategy is able to achieve the desired formation of the spacecraft using only relative position measurements. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.