Analysis of the impact of sensor noise on formation flying control

This paper analyzes the impact of sensing noise on formation flying control algorithms developed for distributed spacecraft systems. The key issue is that the sensing errors cause uncertainty in the initial conditions of the trajectory planning process which is at the core of the fuel-optimization algorithm. To account for these sensing errors, modifications are presented to the station-keeping optimization algorithms that have been developed using linear programming. The approach robustified the design of the control inputs to velocity errors, but this is achieved at the expense of using much shorter design horizons. The modified control approach is demonstrated using a realistic nonlinear simulation environment. The results from these simulations confirm that noise in the relative velocity measurements will play a crucial role in the fleet performance and/or the fuel cost