Authors

Satoshi Satoh, Yuki Hamanaka

Abstract

This paper proposes a nonlinear formation tracking control method using generalized canonical transformations with an adaptive mechanism for atmospheric drag. This method theoretically guarantees that satellites asymptotically track given reference trajectories in formation flying under disturbances, including atmospheric drag and the gravitational J2 effect. First, the nonlinear relative orbital motion is modeled in a port-Hamiltonian system. Second, a specific transformation is constructed for any twice differentiable reference formation trajectory that converts the system into an error system in the form of a time-varying passive port-Hamiltonian system based on generalized canonical transformations. Third, a passivity-based asymptotic stabilizing controller and an adaptive mechanism for the error system are presented, provided that the atmospheric drag coefficient is an unknown constant. Overall, the proposed method guarantees that the estimation error of the atmospheric drag coefficient is bounded and that the tracking error for the reference trajectory converges uniformly asymptotically to zero.

Keywords

adaptive control, formation flying, formation tracking control, generalized canonical transformations, port-hamiltonian systems

Citation

  • Journal: Advances in Space Research
  • Year: 2026
  • Volume: 77
  • Issue: 1
  • Pages: 671–685
  • Publisher: Elsevier BV
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.031

BibTeX

@article{Satoh_2026,
  title={{Nonlinear formation tracking control based on generalized canonical transformations with adaptive mechanism for atmospheric drag}},
  volume={77},
  ISSN={0273-1177},
  DOI={10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.031},
  number={1},
  journal={Advances in Space Research},
  publisher={Elsevier BV},
  author={Satoh, Satoshi and Hamanaka, Yuki},
  year={2026},
  pages={671--685}
}

Download the bib file

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