Attitude tracking control of flexible spacecraft with large amplitude slosh

This paper is focused on attitude tracking control of a spacecraft that is equipped with flexible appendage and partially filled liquid propellant tank. The large amplitude liquid slosh is included by using a moving pulsating ball model that is further improved to estimate the settling location of liquid in microgravity or a zero-g environment. The flexible appendage is modelled as a three-dimensional Bernoulli–Euler beam, and the assumed modal method is employed.A hybrid controller that combines sliding mode control with an adaptive algorithm is designed for spacecraft to perform attitude tracking. The proposed controller has proved to be asymptotically stable. A nonlinear model for the overall coupled system including spacecraft attitude dynamics,liquid slosh, structural vibration and control action is established. Numerical simulation results are presented to show the dynamic behaviors of the coupled system and to verify the effectiveness of the control approach when the spacecraft undergoes the disturbance produced by large amplitude slosh and appendage vibration. Lastly, the designed adaptive algorithm is found to be effective to improve the precision of attitude tracking.

Improved optimal steering law for SGCMG and adaptive attitude control of flexible spacecraft

The issue of attitude maneuver of a flexible spacecraft is investigated with single gimbaled control moment gyroscopes （SGCMGs） as an actuator. To solve the inertia uncertainty of the system, an adaptive attitude control algorithm is designed by applying a radial basis function （RBF） neural network. An improved steering law for SGCMGs is proposed to achieve the optimal out- put torque. It enables the SGCMGs not only to avoid singularity, but also to output more precise torque. In addition, global, uniform, ultimate bounded stability of the attitude control system is proved via the Lyapunov technique. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the new steering law and the algorithm of attitude maneuver of the flexible spacecraft.

Vibration control of flexible spacecraft actuated by piezoceramics via variable structure strategy

This paper presented a hybrid control scheme to vibration reduction of flexible spacecraft during rotational maneuver by using variable structure output feedback control （VSOFC） and piezoelectric materials. The control configuration included the attitude controller based on VSOFC method and vibration attenuator designed by constant-gain negative velocity feedback control. The attitude controller consisted of a linear feedback term and a discontinuous feedback term. With the presence of this attitude controller, an additional flexible control system acting on the flexible parts can be designed for vibration control. Compared with conventional proportional-derivative （PD） control, the developed control scheme guarantees not only the stability of the closed-loop system, but also yields better performance and robustness in the presence of parametric uncertainties and externai disturbance. Simulation results are presented for the spacecraft model to show the effectiveness of the proposed control techniques.

Maneuver and vibration reduction of flexible spacecraft using sliding mode/command shaping technique

A generalized scheme based on the sliding mode and component synthesis vibration suppression (CSVS) method has been proposed for the rotational maneuver and vibration suppression of an orbiting spacecraft with flexible appendages. The proposed control design process is twofold: design of the attitude controller followed by the design of a flexible vibration attenuator. The attitude controller using only the attitude and the rate information for the flexible spacecraft (FS) is designed to serve two purposes: it forces the attitude motion onto a pre-selected sliding surface and then guides it to the state space origin. The shaped command input controller based on the CSVS method is designed for the reduction of the flexible mode vibration, which only requires information about the natural frequency and damping of the closed system. This information is used to discretize the input so that minimum energy is injected via the controller to the flexible modes of the spacecraft. Additionally, to extend the CSVS method to the system with the on-off actuators, the pulse-width pulse-frequency (PWPF) modulation is introduced to control the thruster firing and integrated with the CSVS method. PWPF modulation is a control method that provides pseudo-linear operation for an on-off thruster. The proposed control strategy has been implemented on a FS, which is a hub with symmetric cantilever flexible beam appendages and can undergo a single axis rotation. The results have been proven the potential of this technique to control FS.

Energy-based robust controller design for flexible spacecraft

This paper presents a class of non-model-based position controllers for a kind of flexible spacecraft. With the controllers, one can achieve not only the closed-loop stability of the original distributed parameter system, but also the asymptotic stability of the truncated system, which is obtained through representing the deflection of the appendage by an arbitrary finite number of flexible modes. The system dynamics are not explicitly involved in the controller design and stability proof. Instead, only a very basic system energy relationship of the flexible spacecraft is utilized. The controllers possess several remarkable advantages over the traditional model-based ones. Numerical simulations are carried out on a kind of spacecraft with one flexible appendage and satisfactory results are obtained.

Neural adaptive attitude tracking controller for flexible spacecraft

In this paper,a neural network adaptive controller is proposed for attitude tracking of flexible spacecraft in presence of unknown inertial matrix and external disturbance.In this approach,neural network technique is employed to approximate the unknown system dynamics with finite combinations of some basis functions,and a robust controller is also designed to attenuate the effect of approximation error,more specially,the knowledge of angular velocity is not required.In the closed-loop system,Lyapunov stability analysis shows that the attitude trajectories asymptotically follow the reference output trajectories.Finally,simulation results are presented for the attitude tracking of a flexible spacecraft to show the excellent performance of the proposed controller and illustrate its robustness in face of external disturbances and unknown dynamics.

Variable structure attitude maneuver and vibration control of flexible spacecraft

A dual-stage control system design method is presented for the three-axis-rotational maneuver and vibration stabilization of a spacecraft with flexible appendages embedded with piezoceramics as sensor and actuator. In this design approach, the attitude control and the vibration suppression sub-systems are designed separately using the lower order model. The design of attitude controller is based on the variable structure control (VSC) theory leading to a discontinuous control law. This controller accomplishes asymptotic attitude maneuvering in the closed-loop system and is insensitive to the interaction of elastic modes and uncertainty in the system. To actively suppress the flexible vibrations, the modal velocity feedback control method is presented by using piezoelectric materials as additional sensor and actuator bonded on the surface of the flexible appendages. In addition, a special configuration of actuators for three-axis attitude control is also investigated: the pitch attitude controlled by a momentum wheel, and the roll/yaw control achieved by on-off thrusters, which is modulated by pulse width pulse frequency modulation technique to construct the proper control torque history. Numerical simulations performed show that the rotational maneuver and vibration suppression are accomplished in spite of the presence of disturbance torque and parameter uncertainty.

Fault-tolerant control and vibration suppression of flexible spacecraft: An interconnected system approach

This paper considers a fault-tolerant control and vibration suppression problem of flexible spacecraft.The attitude dynamics is modeled by an interconnected system,in which the rigid part and the flexible part are coupled with each other.Such a model allows us to use the interconnected system approach to analyze the flexible spacecraft.Both distributed and decentralized observer-based fault-tolerant control schemes are developed,under which the closed-loop stability of flexible spacecraft can be ensured by using the cycle-small-gain theorem.Compared with the traditional method,this paper considers the faults occurred not only in the rigid parts,but also in the flexible parts.In addition,the application of the interconnected system approach simplifies the system model of flexible spacecraft,thereby the difficulty of theoretical analysis and engineering practice of fault-tolerant control of flexible spacecraft are greatly reduced.Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed methods and the comparison of different fault-tolerant control approach.

The Dynamics Characteristics of Flexible Spacecraft and Its Closed-Loop Stability with Passive Control

Passive control is the most popular methodology for flexible spacecraft while it remains an open problem whether the closed-loop performance can be achieved only with passive control subject to the coupling modes of rigid and flexibility.Also,the closed-loop performance of passive PD control based on the dynamics of the Euler angle parameterization of spacecraft,which has been widely used in practice,is yet to be addressed.Towards these challenges,by introducing the input-output exact linearization theory and Lyapunov theory,the authors show that the closed-loop performance for flexible spacecraft with rigid and flexible modes can be achieved by adjusting the parameters of the passive controllers sufficiently large.This is done by firstly transforming the flexible spacecraft dynamics into an exact feedback linearization standard form,and then analyzing the closed-loop performance of flexible spacecraft.

H_∞ Inverse Optimal Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Attitude Control for Flexible Spacecraft with Input Saturation

An adaptive inverse optimal attitude controller for flexible spacecraft with fault-free actuator is designed based on adaptive control Lyapunov function and inverse optimal methodology subjected to unknown parameter uncertainties,external disturbances and input saturation.The partial loss of actuator effectiveness and the additive faults are considered simultaneously to deal with actuator faults,and the prior knowledge of bounds on the effectiveness factors of the actuators is assumed to be unknown.A fault-tolerant control version is designed to handle the system with actuator fault by introducing a parameter update law to estimate the lower bound of the partial loss of actuator effectiveness faults.The proposed fault-tolerant attitude controller ensures robustness and stabilization,and it achieves H_∞ optimality with respect to a family of cost functionals.The usefulness of the proposed algorithms is assessed and compared with the conventional approaches through numerical simulations.

Nonlinear finite time attitude control of flexible spacecraft based on a novel output redefinition method

A finite time attitude controller is designed for a flexible spacecraft based on a novel output redefinition method, in this paper. To make the flexible appendages vibration suppression effective, the appendage tip-point is selected as the output. First, a novel output redefinition method is proposed to overcome the non-minimum phase property of the dynamic model. The proposed method not only makes the system model minimum phase but also improves the attitude control system performance. Consequently, the precise attitude pointing and stabilization are achieved.Then, a nonlinear finite time H∞controller is designed based on the backstepping approach. For the situation where the modal variables measurements are not available, a modal observer is also designed. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in the presence of the model uncertainties and environmental disturbances.

THE SPILLOVER MANAGEMENT IN THE DYNAMIC OUTPUT FEEDBACK CONTROL OF FLEXIBLE SPACECRAFT

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Precision attitude regulation of uncertain flexible spacecraft

Consider the precision attitude regulation with vibration suppression for an uncertain and disturbed flexible spacecraft.The disturbance at issue is typically any finite superposition of sinusoidal signals with unknown frequencies and step signals of unknown amplitudes.First we show that the conventional mathematical model for flexible spacecrafts is transformable to a multi-input multi-output(MIMO)strict-feedback nonlinear normal form.Particularly it is strongly minimum-phase and has a well-defined uniform vector relative degree.Then it enables us to develop an adaptive internal model-based controller in the framework of adaptive output regulation to solve the problem.It is proved that asymptotic stability can be guaranteed for the attitude regulation task and the vibration of flexible appendages vanishes asymptotically.Hence,the present study explores a new idea for control of flexible spacecraft in virtue of its system structures.

Investigation on attitude disturbance control and vibration suppression for fuel-fille flexibl spacecraft

This paper is mainly focused on the attitude dynamics and control of a fuel-filled flexible spacecraft sub- jected to the thermal payload during eclipse transitions. The flexible appendages are considered as Euler-Bernoulli beams, and the sloshing liquid is modeled as in two modes multi-spring-mass models; the governing equations of this coupled system are developed by using Hamilton＇s prin- ciple. Numerical results show that the spacecraft attitude responses consist of a quasi-static displacement and superim- posed vibration. Then, we design an adaptive sliding mode and use the Lyapunov approach control law to control the attitude disturbance and suppress the thermal jitter and liq- uid sloshing for the fuel filled flexible spacecraft subject to the thermal payload. Numerical results are presented to verify the efficiency of the hybrid control methods. The results show that the adaptive sliding mode method might be effective to handle the steady-state errors and the Lyapunov control algo- rithm would suppress the residual vibration.

Combined centralized and decentralized control for high-precision spacecraft

The improved structural filter combined with Positive Position Feedback(PPF) controller is investigated for high-precision attitude control of flexible spacecraft which consists of rigid central body and flexible appendages.PPF controller is adopted for high frequency vibration suppression,while the improved structural filter is used for suppression of low frequency vibration.After introducing PPF controller,the vibration frequencies are changed.In view of the frequency uncertainties,an improved structural filter is designed,and the stability study for the centralized control system is conducted.The simulation results show that the performance of spacecraft control system is improved,and the control inputs remain unchanged.

A characteristic modeling method of error-free compression for nonlinear systems

The existence of error when compressing nonlinear functions into the coefficients of the characteristic model is known to be a key issue in existing characteristic modeling approaches,which is solved in this work by an error-free compression method.We first define a key concept of relevant states with corresponding compressing methods into their coefficients,where the coefficients are continuous and bounded and the compression is error-free.Then,we give the conditions for decoupling characteristic modeling for MIMO systems,and sequentially,we establish characteristic models for nonlinear systems with minimum phase and relative order two as well as the flexible spacecrafts,realizing the equivalence in the characteristic model theory.Finally,we explicitly explain the reasons for normalization in the characteristic model theory.