On-ground Testing of Autonomous Guidance for Multiple Satellites in a Cluster

Abstract

The concept of flying multiple satellites in formation has evolved to encompass challenging concepts such as disaggregated space architectures and in-orbit assembly, which include very large numbers of modules flying autonomously in a cluster. Whereas control laws for satellite formations are abundant, guidance and control algorithms for operating large numbers of satellites in close proximity are ongoing research. One approach is to use artificial-potential-based guidance and control laws. This technique uses the definition of several behavior functions like Gather, Avoid and Dock, which form a virtual potential from which desired velocities are computed. A controller is used to achieve these velocities by commanding the onboard thrusters. In a joint research project between the Distributed Space Systems Lab at the Technion and DLR's Institute of Space Systems this approach has been implemented in two different test facilities. Experiments performed in simulation and on the testbeds include formation acquisition and reconfiguration as well as collision avoidance. This paper will present the algorithms as well as the experimental results. They will show the performance and the robustness of the implemented guidance algorithm, as well as the adaptability of the method to different test setups.