Decentralised cooperative attitude tracking using modified Rodriguez parameters based on relative attitude information

In this article, the problem of decentralised cooperative attitude tracking based on relative attitude information is considered in the context of deep space spacecraft formation flying. We use modified Rodriguez parameters for attitude representation due to its nonreduction. We first present a distributed sliding-mode estimator and a cooperative attitude tracking control law such that the attitudes and angular velocities of all spacecraft track their references. Then we extend the result to three different cases. In the first case, we use a passivity approach to derive a control law without angular velocity measurements, which is of significance for applications with low-cost configurations of spacecraft. In the second case, to relax the special connectivity condition given in the original control design, we obtain a locally asymptotical stability condition for any undirected connected communication topology. In the third case, we consider cooperative attitude tracking in the presence of a dynamic communication topology. Simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of these control laws.