Adaptive Attitude Synchronization and Tracking Control of Spacecraft Formation Flying using Reaction Wheel without Angular Velocity Measurement

In this paper, decentralized adaptive attitude synchronization and tracking control of spacecraft formation flying without angular velocity measurement is considered. The objective is to have the spacecraft track the time-varying attitude of a virtual leader in a synchronous manner. To cope with uncertain inertia matrix of the spacecraft, an adaptive term is incorporated into control signal of each spacecraft based on the linear regression structure. It is well-known that measurement of angular velocity suffers from the drift phenomena and noise. To escape angular velocity measurement, semi-velocity signals are constructed using self and relative lead filters. For a more realistic modelling of the system, the dynamics of the reaction wheel actuators are also considered in this paper. Stability of the proposed control methodology are provided using Lyapunov theorem. Finally, simulation results illustrate efficiency of the proposed control scheme.