Data-Driven Self-Triggered Cooperative Control in Satellite Formation Flying Under Switching Topologies Subject to Communication Link Faults

• Published in: IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems Vol. 61; no. 4; pp. 9619 - 9629
• Main Authors: Ren, Ziming, Liu, Hao, Xi, Jianxiang, Zheng, Yuanshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2025; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Aerospace and electronic systems; Aerospace electronics; Algorithms; Control systems; Control theory; Cooperative control; Formation flying; Machine learning; nonlinear satellite; Observers; reinforcement learning (RL); Robust control; Satellite broadcasting; Satellites; self-triggered (ST) communication; Switches; switching topology; System dynamics; Topology; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 0018-9251; 1557-9603
• DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2025.3556800

The data-driven self-triggered (ST) robust optimal cooperative control problem in satellite formation flying (SFF) under switching topologies subject to communication link faults is addressed. The satellites are subject to nonlinearities, limited communication resources, unknown system parameters, and external disturbances. Distributed adaptive observers are designed with a ST communication algorithm under the joint influence of direct switching topologies and unknown topology uncertainties. The convergence of the observers is analyzed and Zeno-free behavior can be guaranteed. Robust optimal cooperative control laws are learned using an off-policy reinforcement learning algorithm without satellite system dynamics and global topology information. Simulation results for an example of SFF validate the effectiveness of the designed cooperative controller