Abstract: From the perspective of molecular dynamics simulation, we present a distributed control strategy that lets a swarm of spacecraft autonomously form a lattice in orbits around a planet, just making use of limited local sensory information. The strategy is based on the artificial potential field approach, which divides the artificial field into two parts: a global artificial potential field mainly based on the famous C-W equations that gathers the spacecraft around a predefined meeting point, and a local term exploiting the well-known Tersoff-Brenner potential that allows a spacecraft to place itself in the correct position relative to its closest neighbors. Moreover, in order to ensure convergence for all initial distributions of the spacecrafts, a dissipation term depending on the velocity of the agent is introduced. The new methodology is demonstrated in the problem of forming a regular tetrahedron lattice (include the center), i.e., the structure unit of diamond. By slightly changing the scenario, our method can be easily applied to shape other configurations similar to the structures of allotropes of carbon, e.g., a regular hexagon(i.e., the structure unit of graphite) etc.

Key words: swarm control, formation, TersoffBrenner, artificial potential field, regular tetrahedron lattice, selforganizing