Cooperative attitude synchronization in satellite swarms: A consensus approach

The present paper considers the problem of autonomous synchronization of attitudes in a swarm of spacecraft. Building upon our recent results on consensus on manifolds, we model the spacecraft as particles on SO(3) and drive these particles to a common point in SO(3). Unlike the Euler angle or quaternion descriptions, this model suffers no singularities nor double-points. Our approach is fully cooperative and autonomous: we use no leader nor external reference. We present two types of control laws, in terms of applied control torques, that globally drive the swarm towards attitude synchronization: one that requires tree-like or all-to-all inter-satellite communication (most efficient) and one that works with nearly arbitrary communication (most robust).

APSK coded modulation schemes for nonlinear satellite channels with high power and spectral efficiency

A new class of 16-ary Amplitude Phase Shift Keying (APSK) coded modulations deemed double-ring PSK modulations best suited for (satellite) nonlinear channels is proposed. Constellation parameters optimization has been based on geometric and information-theoretic considerations. Furthermore, pre- and post-compensation techniques to reduce the nonlinearity impact have been examined. Digital timing clock and carrier phase have been derived and analyzed for a Turbo coded version of the same new modulation scheme. Finally, the performance of state-of the art Turbo coded modulation for this new 16-ary digital modulation has been investigated and compared to the known TCM schemes. It is shown that for the same coding scheme, double-ring APSK modulation outperforms classical 16-QAM and 16-PSK over a typical satellite nonlinear channel due to its intrinsic robustness against the High Power Amplifier (HPA) nonlinear characteristics. The new modulation is shown to be power- and spectrally-efficient, with interesting applications to satellite communications. © 2002 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

High dimensional imagery geometry and it's applications

Because of information digitalization and the correspondence of digits and the coordinates, Information Science and high-dimensional space have consanguineous relations. With the transforming from the information issues to the point analysis in high-dimensional space, we proposed a novel computational theory, named High dimensional imagery geometry (HDIG). Some computational algorithms of HDIG have been realized using software, and how to combine with groups of simple operators in some 2D planes to implement the geometrical computations in high-dimensional space is demonstrated in this paper. As the applications, two kinds of experiments of HDIG, which are blurred image restoration and pattern recognition ones, are given, and the results are satisfying.

Satellite Constellation Design for Complex Coverage

Most traditional satellite constellation design methods are associated with a simple zonal or global, continuous or discontinuous coverage connected with a visibility of points on the Earth's surface. A new geometric approach for more complex coverage of a geographic region is proposed. Full and partial coverage of regions is considered. It implies that, at any time, the region is completely or partially within the instantaneous access area of a satellite of the constellation. The key idea of the method is a two-dimensional space application for maps of the satellite constellation and coverage requirements. The space dimensions are right ascension of ascending node and argument of latitude. Visibility requirements of each region can be presented as a polygon and satellite constellation as a uniform moving grid. At any time, at least one grid vertex must belong to the polygon. The optimal configuration of the satellite constellation corresponds to the maximum sparse grid. The method is suitable for continuous and discontinuous coverage. In the last case, a vertex belonging to the polygon should be examined with a revisit time. Examples of continuous coverage for a space communication network and of the United States are considered. Examples of discontinuous coverage are also presented.