<h2>AAS 97-104</h2>
<h2> AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OF A RING OF SATELLITES                                                                                                      </h2>
<h4> A. G. Y. Johnston and C. R. McInnes, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom                                                                                               </h4>
<h2> Abstract </h2>
 Large satellite constellations are of growing contemporary interest for  applications such as global communications.  Such constellations will require orbit  control to maintain coverage patterns.  As conventional control strategies may  prove to be expensive, it may be advantageous to consider autonomous approaches to  constellation orbit control.  This paper develops a distributed control technique  based on the Potential Function Method.  The algorithms developed allow direct  control of orbital elements and permit the exploitation of natural orbit mechanics.   the application of these techniques to a simple ring of satellites is demonstrated.   Implementation and future improvements to the basic method are also discussed.