Formation configuration as a function of degree of knowledge sharing

In formation flight missions, it is very important to control the relative positions of the satellites. Although there have been many researches on the relative position control for the formation flight, most of them assume the centralized architecture in which an administrator collects every the relative positions and velocities information about the formation. This control method is effective for small formations consisting of a few satellites. But, in case the formations consist of many satellites, the amount of the information that should be dealt with becomes huge and the satellites far away from the central control cannot directly communicate with it. Besides if the central control is down, the system loses the formation control functions thoroughly. So, in the large formation flight missions, each satellite should be informed of the proximity relative information by others and control for itself. This paper discusses the new guidance law based on the regional limited information to control and maintain the formation. In this case, the degree of the information sharing significantly influences the formation configuration. In this study, we investigate the influence of the degree of information sharing in formation flight.