Efficient Stabilization of Hybrid Coulomb Spacecraft Formations using Control Lyapunov Functions
Optimization and Control
2025-02-18 v1 Systems and Control
Systems and Control
Abstract
A control allocation algorithm using control Lyapunov functions to determine stabilizing charges and thrusts of hybrid Coulomb spacecraft formations (HCSFs) is presented. The goal is to stabilize a desired configuration while minimizing the thruster actuation and maximizing Coulomb actuation to minimize propellant usage. A proportion of the decrease of the control Lyapunov function is designated for Coulomb actuation and the rest is performed by thrusters. Simulations show that an 85% reduction of propellant compared to using solely thrusters is attainable using the proposed algorithm. It is shown that the best role for thrusters in a HCSF is to provide small corrections that cannot be provided by Coulomb actuation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2502.10564,
title = {Efficient Stabilization of Hybrid Coulomb Spacecraft Formations using Control Lyapunov Functions},
author = {Adam M Tahir},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.10564},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
8 pages, 8 figures