Distributed Reconfiguration Planning Optimization Method of Large-Scale Structure for Modular Satellites

The concept of spacecraft modularization has gradually attracted attention. Due to the problems of low efficiency and high transfer consumption in the current large-scale reconfiguration research of space modular self-reconfigurable satellites (SMSRS) in orbit, we propose a distributed self-reconfigurable motion planning optimization method. Firstly, the real-time minimum map and the corresponding undirected connected graph are established based on the connection condition and the limited observation constraint condition. Then, using the Dijkstra search algorithm, we create the real-time minimum map and the connected graph, leading to a new local optimal reconfiguration path algorithm that combines minimum map and shortest path planning, which significantly cuts down on the total calculations and the number of steps needed for reconfiguration in large-scale planning. Simulation results show that the new method is better than the traditional centralized graph-based method in the on-orbit reconfiguration mission of random configuration with 10–500 module scale, about 11.2% transfer steps and 35.7% reconfiguration planning time were saved.