Adaptive cooperative control for satellites formation flying based on virtual structure

Aiming at the cooperative control problem of satellites formation flying with mass, inertia uncertainties and external disturbances, an adaptive cooperative control method is proposed. After the virtual structure mode is given, the position and attitude adaptive cooperative controllers of formation satellites and virtual structure are designed. Then, the system stability and the controllers' bounded disturbances suppression are proved. Lastly, a three-satellite formation cooperative maneuver is simulated with the designed controllers. The results show that the designed controllers can estimate satellite mass and inertial adaptively, which can be effectively applied to the satellites formation cooperative control.