Input shaping for control of satellites and formation of satellites

Space research is currently in a trend of using smaller satellites in cooperation to achieve the same results of larger, and more expensive, single satellites. Not only that, satellites in formation enable new possibilities, like taking measurements from plasma from different points at the same time, thus creating a more complete 3D profile. Though formation flying has several advantages in terms of reducing costs and production time, it increases the requirements in control strategies not only for the spacecraft alone but also to coordinate their relative formation structure. Those less expensive and faster deployable satellites are usually less rigid than their larger counterparts: therefore they pose new challenges in spacecraft and formation flight control. This thesis investigates the effects of flexible satellites in the relative dynamics of single and formation flying satellite. It proposes a way of planning an optimal, minimum fuel, trajectory with linear programming, and design an LQR controller for the satellites to follow this trajectory. The system response to input shaped and unshaped reference signal is compared for the flexible satellite with linear and nonlinear actuators.Validerat; 20101217 (root