Optimal control of attitude for coupled-rigid-body spacecraft via Chebyshev-Gauss pseudospectral method

The attitude optimal control problem （OCP） of a two-rigid-body space- craft with two rigid bodies coupled by a ball-in-socket joint is considered. Based on conservation of angular momentum of the system without the external torque, a dynamic equation of three-dimensional attitude motion of the system is formulated. The attitude motion planning problem of the coupled-rigid-body spacecraft can be converted to a dis- crete nonlinear programming （NLP） problem using the Chebyshev-Gauss pseudospectral method （CGPM）. Solutions of the NLP problem can be obtained using the sequential quadratic programming （SQP） algorithm. Since the collocation points of the CGPM are Chebyshev-Gauss （CG） points, the integration of cost function can be approximated by the Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature, and the corresponding quadrature weights can be calculated efficiently using the fast Fourier transform （FFT）. To improve computational efficiency and numerical stability, the barycentric Lagrange interpolation is presented to substitute for the classic Lagrange interpolation in the approximation of state and con- trol variables. Furthermore, numerical float errors of the state differential matrix and barycentric weights can be alleviated using trigonometric identity especially when the number of CG points is large. A simple yet efficient method is used to avoid sensitivity to the initial values for the SQP algorithm using a layered optimization strategy from a feasible solution to an optimal solution. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is perfect for attitude motion planning of a two-rigid-body spacecraft coupled by a ball-in-socket joint through numerical simulation.

Chebyshev spectral variational integrator and applications

The Chebyshev spectral variational integrator(CSVI) is presented in this paper. Spectral methods have aroused great interest in approximating numerically a smooth problem for their attractive geometric convergence rates. The geometric numerical methods are praised for their excellent long-time geometric structure-preserving properties.According to the generalized Galerkin framework, we combine two methods together to construct a variational integrator, which captures the merits of both methods. Since the interpolating points of the variational integrator are chosen as the Chebyshev points,the integration of Lagrangian can be approximated by the Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature rule, and the barycentric Lagrange interpolation is presented to substitute for the classic Lagrange interpolation in the approximation of configuration variables and the corresponding derivatives. The numerical float errors of the first-order spectral differentiation matrix can be alleviated by using a trigonometric identity especially when the number of Chebyshev points is large. Furthermore, the spectral variational integrator(SVI) constructed by the Gauss-Legendre quadrature rule and the multi-interval spectral method are carried out to compare with the CSVI, and the interesting kink phenomena for the Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature rule are discovered. The numerical results reveal that the CSVI has an advantage on the computing time over the whole progress and a higher accuracy than the SVI before the kink position. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated and verified perfectly through the numerical simulations for several classical mechanics examples and the orbital propagation for the planet systems and the Solar system.

Hamilton–Pontryagin spectral-collocation methods for the orbit propagation

According to the discrete Hamilton–Pontryagin variational principle,we construct a class of variational integrators in the real vector spaces and extend to the Lie groups for the left-trivialized Lagrangian mechanical systems by employing the spectral-collocation method to discretize the corresponding Lagrangian and kinematic constraints.The constructed framework can be transformed easily to the well-known symplectic partitioned Runge–Kutta methods and the higher order symplectic partitioned Lie Group methods by choosing same interpolation nodes and quadrature points.Two numerical experiments about the orbit propagation of Kepler two-body system and the rigid-body flow propagation of a free rigid body are conducted,respectively.The simulating results reveal that the constructed update schemes can possess simultaneously the excellent exponent convergence rates of spectral methods and the attractive long-term structure-preserving properties of geometric numerical algorithms.