Multiple solar sail formation flying around heliocentric displaced orbit via consensus

This paper investigates the problem of multiple solar sail-based spacecraft formation flying in which the chief follows a heliocentric displaced orbit, whereas each deputy adjusts the sail propulsive acceleration so as to track a desired (relative) trajectory with respect to the chief. In particular, coordinated control strategies are presented for both the full state feedback case and the relative velocity unavailability case, respectively. The developed consensus-based algorithms rely on the protocols formulated on an undirected communication topology with information link couplings, utilizing every available neighbor-to-neighbor information data such that the reliability of the formation system can be enhanced. Illustrative examples show the validity the proposed method.