On-Orbit Reconfiguration Dynamics and Control of Heterogeneous Intelligent Spacecraft

An ultra-large space structure constructed by modular intelligent spacecraft can meet the mission requirements of variable environment and multiple working conditions through reconfiguration. This paper focuses on the dynamics and control problems in the on-obit reconfiguration of heterogeneous intelligent spacecraft, which consists of 125 rigid spacecraft modules and 2 flexible spacecraft modules. The relative position motion of the spacecraft is described by the Clohessy-Wiltshire (C-W) equations, and the attitude dynamics is expressed on SO(3). The reconfiguration mission is decomposed into three distinct phases: separation, unit reconfiguration and reassembly, where the unit reconfiguration phase is further divided into three steps: separation, pre-assembly and docking. The reassembly phase can also be divided into two steps: pre-assembly and docking. To ensure the safety of the reconfiguration mission, a compound controller which combines a collision avoidance controller and a PD controller is designed for the pre-assembly steps, while only PD control is used for the docking steps. Some numerical results are shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller.