Autonomous spacecraft swarm formation planning using artificial potential field based on nonlinear bifurcation dynamics

Spacecraft swarms with huge members, for example, several dozens or hundreds, pose great advantages in many applications such as earth remote sensing, or deep space exploration. However, in traditional spacecraft formation control framework, path planning needs to be settled before orbital maneuver, and every spacecraft in the formation follows the preconditioned path. When the number of spacecraft reaches to swarm level, the control laws by tradition framework become very complex and computation consuming may be too huge to be burdened. A new spacecraft swarm control methodology is proposed by using nonlinear bifurcation dynamics. According to desired spacecraft swarm configuration, artificial force/acceleration filed with bifurcation characteristics can be designed. By only setting few bifurcation parameters, bifurcation may be aroused, and members in spacecraft swarms can be drove to new balanced position under bifurcation dynamics for the purpose of formation capture, maintenance and reconfiguration. The presented method may be more applicable and less calculation consuming for massive spacecraft swarms control.