Abstract
We present a decentralized parallel estimation architecture for the precision control of vehicle formations. Our work is motivated by science instruments synthesized from free-flying formations in deep-space and such formations have extremely precise control requirements. The parallel estimation architecture involves each vehicle maintaining an estimate of the full state of the formation, and this also provides additional benefits in system autonomy and redundancy. Explicit analysis of particular architectures shows that the minimum number of communication links required to ameliorate disagreement amongst the estimators grows linearly with the formation size. We review results that allow us to design decentralized parallel estimators for arbitrary measurement and communication topologies in both the analog (with noise) and digital (with packet loss) cases.
