Morse-lyapunov-based decentralized consensus control of rigid body spacecraft in orbital relative motion

An algorithm is proposed for almost globally asymptotically stable consensus control of multi-agent rigid body spacecraft in orbital relative motion using Morse-Lyapunov analysis in the framework of SE(3). The control objective is to stabilize the relative pose configurations with velocity synchronization of the spacecraft which share their states according to a static communication topology in the presence of gravitational forces and torques. The feedback control design is conducted on the dynamic level where mass and inertia may be large and thus the strategy is applicable to quickly maneuvering and tumbling rigid spacecraft, and a potential-based collision avoidance scheme is also implemented.