An improved event-trigger-based robust 6-DOF spacecraft formation control scheme under restricted communication

This paper addresses the robust six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) formation control problem for groups of spacecraft with constraints that include: restricted communication, unknown external perturbations, model uncertainties, and attitude orbit coupling. First, a Zeno-free trigger function is presented based on the event trigger mechanism to avoid continuous communication and save bandwidth resources; Then, the RBF neural networks are adopted to approximate the model uncertainties and external perturbations of the system; Furthermore, a distributed robust formation controller is designed and the coupling between the event trigger mechanism and neural networks is analyzed, and by designing Lyapunov functions, it is theoretically demonstrated that the formation error of spacecraft can converge to an arbitrarily small residual set. Finally, the simulation experiments are given to validate that the combination of the time-triggered mechanism and neural networks can effectively reduce the number of system controller updates, save communication bandwidth resources and weaken the impact of uncertainties on system stability.