Abstract:

The attitude coordination control problem for formation flying flexible spacecraft in the absence of the measurements of elastic modal variables and angular velocities, associated with attitude regulation and time varying reference attitude tracking, is investigated. For attitude regulation case, an extension of a proportion-derivation (PD) coordination controller proposed by others for rigid spacecraft with information to the case of flexible spacecraft is attempted in the absence of the measurements of elastic modal variables. Then, for attitude tracking case, by constructing desired dynamic systems about the elastic modes and using passive filters, a velocity free feedback coordination controller is presented from only attitude measurements. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.