Multi agent control for space based interferometry

Agent systems have been accepted and used advantageously by computer scientists since their inception, but such systems have not been used so readily within the realms of control engineering or robotics. The work contained within this thesis investigates separated spacecraft interferometry in the context of a multi-agent system, under the influence of libration point orbital dynamics. The main focus is on the development of key agent skills, including state estimation, guidance, control and decision methods to attain the desired system output; within the consideration of decision methods, a comparison between centralized and distributed decisions is made. Whilst mainly focussing on the development of these skills, additional considerations pertinent to agent system development are also discussed. A discrete time control method, integrating Kalman filtering with sliding mode control and using potential function guidance to achieve velocity tracking with six degrees of freedom, is developed for the purposes of controlling agent motion. Whilst developed for the purposes of spacecraft agent control, the presented methods are equally valid to any other vehicular agent system such as UAVs or AUVs if considering inter-agent regulation. Centralized and distributed decision methods are developed to enable appropriate autonomous actions to be performed by the agent system. Primarily these actions include selective attainment and regulation of a non-natural orbits relative to a central agent to form an appropriate array configuration and instances of array reconfiguration to compensate for both failed agents and to maximize the mission duration.