Cyclic Constraint Analysis for Attitude Synchronization of Networked Spacecraft Agents

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the attitude synchronization problem for multiple networked spacecraft, and the spacecraft agents are assumed to interact on an undirected and connected graph. We adopt a physically motivated PD-like attitude consensus scheme which takes Euler parameters or quaternions of the error orientation matrix between the spacecraft agents as the attitude deviation, resulting in nonlinear attitude coupling among the networked spacecraft agents and additionally multiple equilibria of the closed-loop networked system. The stability of the closed-loop networked system is shown by the Lyapunov stability analysis. To show the convergence of the attitude synchronization errors, we develop a new tool called cyclic constraint analysis. With this synthesis tool, we show that attitude synchronization is achieved without relying on any assumptions of the spacecraft orientations. Simulation study is presented to shed some light on the obtained results.