Path Planning for Satellite Formation Flight using Non-convex Model Predictive Control

This paper presents a path generation strategy for satellite formation flying based on model predictive control (MPC). The strategy aims to compute suboptimal trajectories by solving a nonconvex optimization problem, enabling the system of satellites to achieve formation flying in advance to reaching the desired end states. It utilizes a combination of centralized architecture to achieve precise formation flying and ensures the desired formation is maintained during position transitions. By leveraging Kronecker's product, the strategy incorporates the dynamics of all satellites into a unified matrix, allowing for generalization to systems with any number of satellites.