On the relation between the local formation control law and the resulted configuration

In formation flight missions, it is very important to control the relative positions of satellites. Although there have been many researches on the relative position control for formation flight, most of them assumes the centralized architecture in which an administrator collects every relative position and velocity information about the formation. However, in case the formation consists of many satellites, it takes long time to collect the information of all the satellites and to distribute the command to every satellite. Therefore, the centralized architecture is unsuitable for the control system that requires a rapid response. Beside, if the central control is down, the system loses the formation control functions thoroughly. One strategy that overcomes these flaws is to make each satellite be controlled by using the information on its nearby satellites. This paper discusses the guidance law based on the regional limited information to maintain the formation. In this case, the information structure of the system greatly influences the control law and the control performance. In this study, we discuss how the control laws are designed, first. And how the information structure influence the configuration of the formation is focused on.