Attitude Coordination Control for Formation Flying Spacecraft Based on the Rotation Matrix

Two attitude coordination controllers that make the system converge to the equilibrium point in finite time are designed for spacecraft formation flying with actuator saturation constraints. The first finite-time attitude coordination controller is suitable for the situation that all states of the closed-loop system are available. To deal with the problem of failing to measure angular velocity, a novel filter is presented in the second finite-time attitude coordination controller. Because the model of spacecraft formation flying is established based on the rotation matrix, the closed-loop system does not have the drawback of unwinding. The theoretical analysis and simulation results are given to prove the validity of the proposed controllers. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.