Application of cyclic pursuit strategy to formation reconfiguration of spacecraft clusters

This paper investigates the application of cyclic pursuit algorithms to formation reconfiguration of spacecraft clusters. A cyclic pursuit algorithm for nonlinear relative dynamics of spacecraft clusters is presented. The implementation of cyclic pursuit strategy has been applied to three scenarios: formation rendezvous, formation reconfiguration and collision avoidance reconfiguration. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of application of cyclic pursuit algorithms, which indicate that cyclic pursuit strategy is a promising technique for spacecraft cluster formation control.