Position and attitude control of formation flying satellites for restructuring their configurations by electromagnetic forces at the docking phase

This research proposes a relative position and attitude control method without reaction wheels, using magnetic force with multi-dipole for formation-flying spacecraft. This technology can be widely applied to re-configurable space structures that architect large structure, such like restructuring themselves by assembling basic structural units. One remarkable benefit is that this control method doesn't limit mission term because it never requires any types of fuel to drive RW for attitude control or unloading. So we focused on current control of dipoles which produce strong nonlinear magnetic forces and suggested a way of linearization of a nonlinear system for control by using reference controllable system. Also feasibility of this method and controllability were investigated, then the series of position and attitude control simulation were shown.