Distributed 6DOF coordination control of spacecraft formation with coupling time delay

This paper studies adaptive six Degree-of-Freedom (6DOF) coordination control of spacecraft formation with coupling time delay. By rearranging the combined translational and rotational dynamics into a unified Euler-Lagrange formulation, the developed controllers can be applied directly to maintain formation as well as desired relative attitudes. Then, based on a novel adaptive control architecture, distributed controllers are developed, which allow for parameter uncertainties and unknown external disturbances. It is shown that arbitrary desired formation and relative attitudes among spacecraft can be obtained with constant coupling time delays. Simulations are provided that demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.