Zhifeng Zeng; Yihua Tang; Shilu Chen; Min Xu

Pattern Formation in Swarming Spacecrafts using Tersoff-Brenner Potential Field

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Author(s)

Zhifeng Zeng ^1,2,* Yihua Tang ^1,2 Shilu Chen ^1,2 Min Xu ^1,2

1. School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

2. Science and Technology on Aerospace Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Xi’an, China

* Corresponding author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijisa.2013.06.01

Received: 14 Aug. 2012 / Revised: 6 Dec. 2012 / Accepted: 22 Feb. 2013 / Published: 8 May 2013

Index Terms

Formation, Swarm, Tersoff-Brenner, Potential Field, Hexagonal Lattices, Self-Organizing

Abstract

We present a distributed control strategy that lets a swarm of spacecrafts autonomously form a lattice in orbit around a planet. The system, based on the artificial potential field approach, proposes a novel way to divide the artificial field into two main terms: a global artificial potential field mainly based on the famous C-W equations that gathers the spacecrafts around a predefined meeting point, and a local term exploited the well-known Tersoff-Brenner potential that allows a spacecraft to place itself in the correct position relative to its closest neighbors. Moreover, in order to obtain convergence from all initial distributions of the spacecrafts, a dissipation term depended on the velocity of agent is introduced. The new methodology is demonstrated in the problem of forming a hexagon lattice, the structure unit of graphite. It is shown that a pattern formation can operate around a planet. By slightly changing the scenario our method can be easily applied to shape other configurations, such as a regular tetrahedron (with central point), the structure unit, etc.

Cite This Paper

Zhifeng Zeng, Yihua Tang, Shilu Chen, Min Xu, "Pattern Formation in Swarming Spacecrafts using Tersoff-Brenner Potential Field", International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications(IJISA), vol.5, no.6, pp.1-11, 2013. DOI:10.5815/ijisa.2013.06.01

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International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications (IJISA)