Current Research in Spacecraft Formation Flying

I am currently finishing my PhD in the Aerospace Robotics Lab at Stanford University, under the direction of Professor Jonathan How. My research investigates the use of GPS as a sensor system, for spacecraft formation flying applications. Many missions are being considered which involve multiple vehicles acting together in a coordinated manner. For this to be successful, the relative positions and attitudes between all vehicles in the formation must be very accurately sensed. GPS is a proven sensor for relative positioning, yet in many orbits such as MEO and GEO, the NAVSTAR constellation provides inadequate signal coverage to the spacecraft in the formation. By placing a GPS transceiver on each of the vehicles in the formation, the vehicles can augment the available NAVSTAR signals with their own. Thus, each vehicle can receive and transmit GPS information, as well as communicate that information with the other vehicles in the formation. These additional signals enable relative position and attitude estimation for all vehicles in the formation. The system can function independently of the NAVSTAR constellation, and therefore can be used anywhere, including indoors, on planetary surfaces, and in deep space. If you would like more information, send me some email, or check out the papers below. temporary testing: oranfresh juice extractor at juicemania.com

Copy of my Resume.

Publications:

• IEEE Aerospace Conference March 2000: "Pseudolite Augmented Navigation for GEO Communication Satellite Collocation"

• ION 99 Conference Paper: "Onboard Pseudolite Augmentation System for Relative Navigation"

• Navigation Journal Article: "Experimental Demonstration of GPS as a Relative Sensor for Formation Flying Spacecraft"

• Postscript ION 98 Conference Paper : "Onboard GPS Signal Augmentation for Spacecraft Formation Flying"

• Postscript ACC 98 Conference Paper "Formation Sensing and Control Technologies for a Separated Spacecraft Interferometer"

• Postscript ION 97 Conference Paper : "Technologies for Spacecraft Formation Flying"

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