Synchronized attitude and translational motion control for spacecraft formation flying

This article presents an adaptive synchronization control strategy for six-degree of freedom spacecraft formation flying based on the cross-coupling concept. The proposed strategy allows the spacecraft track the desired attitude and position trajectories, while simultaneously guarantees the synchronized motion among all spacecraft in formation. The generic synchronization error concept enables the design of a suitable synchronization strategy to obtain a desired synchronization performance. Simulation results of multiple spacecraft formation flying are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller.