Attitude Consensusability in Multispacecraft Systems Using Magnetic Actuators

The leaderless attitude consensusability of multispacecraft systems by using magnetic actuators is addressed. By proposing a nonlinear consensus protocol for the actuators magnetic dipoles, it is shown that the multispacecraft system is average controllable under the consensus protocol if it is maneuvering at orbits with persistently exciting magnetic fields in the Earth-centered inertial frame. Then, under some conditions, achieving consensus in the multispacecraft system is studied. Simulation results for a team of spacecraft validate the proposed consensus strategy.