Satellite Cluster Formation Reconfiguration Based on the Bifurcating Potential Field

Abstract

The satellite cluster formation reconfiguration has received considerable attention in recent years. However, the traditional centralized control methods are challenging to apply to satellite clusters because of the enormous fuel consumption, and few studies have addressed the mathematical characterization of satellite clusters. This research aims to propose a mathematical characterization method for satellite clusters and investigate the formation reconfiguration control of satellite clusters. This study provided the five-element characterization method to represent the cluster characteristics and internal correlation characteristics of orbiting satellite clusters. In addition, a control method based on bifurcating potential fields was proposed to realize satellite cluster formation’s dynamic migration and rapid reconfiguration. A cluster with 50 satellites was simulated to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed formation control algorithm. The results show that various formation topologies were achieved by simply changing the bifurcation parameter and configuration adjustment parameters. The five descriptive elements of the satellite cluster can intuitively and effectively reflect the running state of the satellite cluster.