Distributed adaptive attitude control for multiple underactuated flexible spacecraft

This paper studies the distributed adaptive control of a team of underactuated flexible spacecraft under leader-follower architecture with the feedback of rigid bodies. For each flexible spacecraft, it is assumed that only the rigid body is actuated and measured directly. First, a distributed adaptive control strategy is proposed with the feedback of the generalized coordinates, the generalized velocities and the generalized accelerations of the rigid bodies. Second, a distributed adaptive controller is presented based on the states and the estimation of the generalized accelerations of the rigid bodies in the team. Finally, one numerical simulation is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control law.