Coordinated Multiple Spacecraft Attitude Control with Communication Time Delays and Uncertainties

In this paper, we consider the coordinated attitude control problem of spacecraft formation with communication delays, model and disturbance uncertainties, and propose novel synchronized control schemes. Since the attitude motion is essential in non-Euclidean space, thus, unlike the existing designs which describe the delayed relative attitude via linear algorithm, we treat the attitude error and the local relative attitude on the nonlinear manifold-Lie group, and attempt to obtain coupling attitude information by the natural quaternion multiplication. Our main focus is to address two problems:1) Propose a coordinated attitude controller to achieve the synchronized attitude maneuver, i.e., synchronize multiple spacecraft attitudes and track a time-varying desired attitude; 2) With known model information, we achieve the synchronized attitude maneuver with disturbances under angular velocity constraints. Especially, if the formation does not have any uncertainties, the designer can simply set the controller via an appropriate choice of control gains to avoid system actuator saturation. Our controllers are proposed based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii method and simulation of a spacecraft formation is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of theoretical results.     

航天器自适应快速非奇异终端滑模容错控制

针对存在外部干扰、转动惯量矩阵不确定、控制器饱和以及执行器故障的航天器姿态跟踪控制问题,提出了基于自适应快速非奇异终端滑模的有限时间收敛控制方案。通过引入能够避免奇异点的具有有限时间收敛特性的快速非奇异终端滑模面,设计了满足多约束的有限时间姿态跟踪容错控制器,并利用参数自适应方法使控制器设计不依赖于系统惯量信息和外部干扰的上界。此外,所设计的控制器显式考虑了执行器输出力矩的饱和幅值特性,使航天器在饱和幅值的限制下完成姿态跟踪控制任务,并且无须进行在线故障估计。Lyapunov稳定性分析表明：在外部干扰、转动惯量矩阵不确定、控制器饱和以及执行器故障等约束条件下,所设计的控制器能够保证闭环系统的快速收敛性,而且对控制器饱和与执行器故障具有良好的容错性能。数值仿真校验了该控制器在姿态跟踪控制中的优良性能。     

Decentralized attitude synchronization tracking control for multiple spacecraft under directed communication topology

This paper studies the attitude synchronization tracking control of spacecraft formation flying with a directed communication topology and presents three different controllers. By introducing a novel error variable associated with rotation matrix, a decentralized attitude synchronization controller, which could obtain almost global asymptotical stability of the closed-loop system, is developed. Then, considering model uncertainties and unknown external disturbances, we propose a robust adaptive attitude synchronization controller by designing adaptive laws to estimate the unknown parameters. After that, the third controller is proposed by extending this method to the case of time-varying communication delays via Lyapunov–Krasovskii analysis. The distinctive feature of this work is to address attitude coordinated control with model uncertainties, unknown disturbances and time-varying delays in a decentralized framework, with a strongly connected directed information flow. It is shown that tracking and synchronization of an arbitrary desired attitude can be achieved when the stability condition is satisfied. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.     

Autonomous attitude coordinated control for spacecraft formation with input constraint,model uncertainties,and external disturbances

To synchronize the attitude of a spacecraft formation flying system, three novel autonomous control schemes are proposed to deal with the issue in this paper. The first one is an ideal autonomous attitude coordinated controller, which is applied to address the case with certain models and no disturbance. The second one is a robust adaptive attitude coordinated controller, which aims to tackle the case with external disturbances and model uncertainties. The last one is a filtered robust adaptive attitude coordinated controller, which is used to overcome the case with input con- straint, model uncertainties, and external disturbances. The above three controllers do not need any external tracking signal and only require angular velocity and relative orientation between a spacecraft and its neighbors. Besides, the relative information is represented in the body frame of each spacecraft. The controllers are proved to be able to result in asymptotical stability almost everywhere. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed three approaches are effective for attitude coordination in a spacecraft formation flying system.     

Exponential Time-varying Sliding Mode Control for Large Angle Attitude Eigenaxis Maneuver of Rigid Spacecraft

An eigenaxis maneuver strategy with global robustness is studied for large angle attitude maneuver of rigid spacecraft. A sliding mode attitude control algorithm with an exponential time-varying sliding surface is designed, which guarantees the sliding mode occurrence at the beginning and eliminates the reaching phase of time-invariant sliding mode control. The proposed control law is global robust against matched external disturbances and system uncertainties, and ensures the eigenaxis rotation in the presence of disturbances and parametric uncertainties. The stability of the control law and the existence of global siding mode are proved by Lyapunov method. Furthermore, the system states can be fully predicted by the analytical solution of state equations, which indicates that the attitude error does not exhibit any overshoots and the system has a good dynamic response. A control torque command regulator is introduced to ensure the eigenaxis rotation under the actuator saturation. Finally, a numerical simulation is employed to illustrate the advantages of the proposed control law.     

Delay Depending Decentralized Adaptive Attitude Synchronization Tracking Control of Spacecraft Formation

This paper deals with the problem of cooperative attitude tracking with time-varying communication delays as well as the delays between inter-synchronization control parts and self-tracking control parts in the spacecraft formation flying. First, we present the attitude synchronization tracking control algorithms and analyze the sufficient delay-dependent stability condition with the choice of a Lyapunov function when the angular velocity can be measured. More specifically, a class of linear filters is developed to derive an output feedback control law without having direct information of the angular velocity, which is significant for practical applications with low-cost configurations of spacecraft. Using a well-chosen Lyapunov-Krasovskii function, it is proven that the presented control law can make the spacecraft formation attitude tracking system synchronous and achieve exponential stability, in the face of model uncertainties, as well as non-uniform time-varying delays in communication links and different control parts. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.     

使用变速控制力矩陀螺的航天器鲁棒自适应姿态跟踪控制

 研究以变速控制力矩陀螺群（VSCMGs）为执行机构的航天器姿态跟踪问题。采用四元数描述姿态, 在姿态误差的描述中引入了现时姿态与期望姿态之间的方向余弦矩阵。考虑执行机构模型参数不确定和有外干扰的情况, 姿态误差动力学方程为多输入多输出(MIMO)的非线性系统。基于Lyapunov理论设计了鲁棒自适应控制器, 运用光滑投影算法避免了估计参数陷入奇异。仿真结果表明, 设计的鲁棒自适应控制律明显地缩小了姿态跟踪误差, 很好地解决了外部环境干扰和执行机构由于安装误差或机械磨损造成的轴承方向未对准的问题。     

推力器故障的刚体航天器自适应变结构容错控制

 针对刚体航天器存在未知惯量参数、推力器故障以及控制受限的姿态控制问题,提出了一类自适应变结构容错控制方法,显式地引入推力器输出的饱和幅值,以确保控制输出在其要求界的范围内;同时,引入控制参数在线自适应调整技术,提高了控制律对参数、干扰以及故障变化的自适应能力;对设计者而言,推力器故障信息不需要进行在线检测和分离。此外,进一步考虑存在推力偏差对系统性能的影响,设计控制器参数使得闭环系统对这类推力偏差具有L₂增益稳定性。最后,将设计的控制器应用于航天器的姿态机动控制,仿真结果表明该控制器能有效地抑制外部干扰、参数不确定性和推力器各种故障的约束,在完成姿态机动的同时,保证其控制输出满足饱和受限界的要求。     

Robust fault-tolerant attitude control for satellite with multiple uncertainties and actuator faults

In this paper, the satellite attitude control system subject to parametric perturbations, external disturbances, time-varying input delays, actuator faults and saturation is studied. In order to make the controller architecture simple and practical, the closed-loop system is transformed into a disturbance-free nominal system and an equivalent disturbance firstly. The equivalent disturbance represents all above uncertainties and actuator failures of the original system. Then a robust controller is proposed in a simple composition consisting of a nominal controller and a robust compensator. The nominal controller is designed for the transformed nominal system. The robust compensator is developed from a second-order filter to restrict the influence of the equivalent disturbance. Stability analysis indicates that both attitude tracking errors and compensator states can converge into the given neighborhood of the origin in finite time. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed control law, numerical simulations are carried out in different cases. Presented results demonstrate that the high-precision attitude tracking control can be achieved by the proposed fault-tolerant control law. Furthermore, multiple system performances including the control accuracy and energy consumption index are fully discussed under a series of compensator parameters.     

航天器有限时间自适应姿态跟踪容错控制

非刚体航天器存在时变的惯量、执行器完全失效或衰退故障以及外界干扰的情况,提出一种有限时间自适应姿态跟踪容错控制方法。首先,基于有限时间理论和自适应方法,设计惯量不确定性自适应估计项和外界干扰参数自适应估计项进行系统补偿,克服惯量不确定性和抑制外界干扰;然后,基于容错控制和双幂次方法,设计一种自适应有限时间姿态跟踪容错控制算法,并且利用Lyapunov稳定性理论证明所提算法能够保证航天器姿态跟踪系统实际有限时间稳定;最后,对仿真结果进行验证。结果表明:所提有限时间姿态跟踪容错控制方法是有效的。     

基于旋转矩阵的预设时间航天器编队姿态协同控制

由多个航天器组成的编队系统对复杂的环境往往具有较高的适应性和容错性,能更高效率地完成单航天器难以完成的任务。因此主要针对多航天器系统的姿态协同控制问题,提出一种基于旋转矩阵的预设时间控制算法。首先,为了避免航天器姿态建模的奇异性和模糊性问题,采用旋转矩阵对航天器的姿态进行统一描述,同时结合有向的通信拓扑对航天器姿态协同控制系统进行建模。其次,为赋予系统可控的收敛速度,提出一种基于滑模的预设时间控制算法。该算法的引入使得航天器编队系统的收敛时间可以在合理的范围内任意给定。此外,为了实现系统对参数摄动和外部干扰的鲁棒性,采用神经网络和自适应算法对不确定性进行在线估计与补偿。最后,通过理论分析和数值仿真验证了所提预设时间控制算法的有效性。     

基于有向图的航天器编队飞行自适应姿态协同控制

在有向通信拓扑下研究了编队航天器自适应姿态协同控制问题。针对航天器编队飞行系统中存在外部扰动和模型不确定性的情况,通过选取包含相对姿态误差和绝对姿态误差的辅助变量,提出了一种鲁棒自适应控制策略。提出了自适应律估计转动惯量矩阵和扰动上界等未知参数,并且利用Lyapunov稳定性理论分析了闭环系统的渐近稳定性。与滑模控制等传统鲁棒控制不同,所设计的鲁棒自适应控制器是连续的,更便于航天器编队飞行系统的实现。最后通过仿真验证了该控制策略能够实现高精度的编队飞行跟踪控制。     

Coordinated attitude control for flexible spacecraft formation with actuator configuration misalignment

This paper investigates the coordinated attitude control problem for flexible spacecraft formation with the consideration of actuator configuration misalignment. First, an integral-type sliding mode adaptive control law is designed to compensate the effects of flexible mode, environmental disturbance and actuator installation deviation. The basic idea of the Integral-type Sliding Mode Control (ISMC) is to design a proper sliding manifold so that the sliding mode starts from the initial time instant, and thus the robustness of the system can be guaranteed from the beginning of the process and the reaching phase is eliminated. Then, considering the nominal system of spacecraft formation based on directed topology, an attitude cooperative control strategy is developed for the nominal system with or without communication delay. The proposed control law can guarantee that for each spacecraft in the spacecraft formation, the desired attitude objective can be achieved and the attitude synchronization can be maintained with other spacecraft in the formation. Finally, simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.     

Distributed fixed-time attitude coordinated control for multiple spacecraft with actuator saturation

This paper investigates the distributed fixed-time attitude coordinated control problem for multiple spacecraft subject to actuator saturation under the directed topology. First, a distributed fixed-time observer is presented for each follower spacecraft to estimate the leader spacecraft’s states. Compared with the commonly used fixed-time observer, the settling time of the proposed fixed-time observer can be easily adjusted by some free design parameters. Next, a distributed fixed-time control ...     

Attitude coordination for spacecraft formation with multiple communication delays

Communication delays are inherently present in information exchange between spacecraft and have an effect on the control performance of spacecraft formation. In this work, attitude coordination control of spacecraft formation is addressed, which is in the presence of multiple communication delays between spacecraft. Virtual system-based approach is utilized in case that a constant reference attitude is available to only a part of the spacecraft. The feedback from the virtual systems to the spacecraft formation is introduced to maintain the formation. Using backstepping control method, input torque of each spacecraft is designed such that the attitude of each spacecraft converges asymptotically to the states of its corresponding virtual system. Furthermore, the backstepping technique and the Lyapunov–Krasovskii method contribute to the control law design when the reference attitude is time-varying and can be obtained by each spacecraft. Finally, effectiveness of the proposed methodology is illustrated by the numerical simulations of a spacecraft formation.     

考虑输入饱和的航天器相对运动鲁棒自适应控制

 研究了在输入饱和约束条件下的航天器相对运动的姿态和轨道一体化控制问题。首先,基于单位对偶四元数给出了航天器6自由度相对运动的数学模型,利用误差对偶四元数来描述航天器的相对姿态和相对位置。接着,针对输入饱和问题,提出了一种对航天器模型参数不确定性和外部有界干扰具有较强鲁棒性的自适应控制器,并通过李雅普诺夫方法从理论上严格证明了整个闭环系统的全局渐近稳定性。最后,通过数值仿真来验证设计方法的有效性和可行性,并且与其他方法进行了比较,结果表明设计的方法能够抑制输入饱和的问题,在性能上具有更快的收敛速度和更强的鲁棒性。     

Adaptive Integral-type Sliding Mode Control for Spacecraft Attitude Maneuvering Under Actuator Stuck Failures

A fault tolerant control (FTC) design technique against actuator stuck faults is investigated using integral-type sliding mode control (ISMC) with application to spacecraft attitude maneuvering control system. The principle of the proposed FTC scheme is to design an integral-type sliding mode attitude controller using on-line parameter adaptive updating law to compensate for the effects of stuck actuators. This adaptive law also provides both the estimates of the system parameters and external disturbances such that a prior knowledge of the spacecraft inertia or boundedness of disturbances is not required. Moreover, by including the integral feedback term, the designed controller can not only tolerate actuator stuck faults, but also compensate the disturbances with constant components. For the synthesis of controller, the fault time, patterns and values are unknown in advance, as motivated from a practical spacecraft control application. Complete stability and performance analysis are presented and illustrative simulation results of application to a spacecraft show that high precise attitude control with zero steady-error is successfully achieved using various scenarios of stuck failures in actuators.     

Adaptive fault-tolerant attitude tracking control for spacecraft with time-varying inertia uncertainties

This paper is devoted to adaptive attitude tracking control for rigid spacecraft in the presence of parametric uncertainties, actuator faults and external disturbance. Specifically, a dynamic model is established based on one-tank spacecraft, which explicitly takes into account changing Center of Mass(CM). Then, a control scheme is proposed to achieve attitude tracking.Benefiting from explicitly considering the changing CM during the controller design process, the proposed scheme possesses good robustness to parametric uncertainties with less fuel consumption.Moreover, a fault-tolerant control algorithm is proposed to accommodate actuator faults with no need of knowing the actuators' fault information. Lyapunov-based analysis is provided and the closed-loop system stability is rigorously proved. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.     

Anti-disturbance attitude control of combined spacecraft with enhanced control allocation scheme

In this paper, we propose a novel anti-disturbance attitude control law for combined spacecraft with an improved closed-loop control allocation scheme. More specifically, a saturated approach is adopted to guarantee the global asymptotic stability under control input saturation. To enhance the robustness of the system, a nonlinear disturbance observer is constructed to compensate the disturbances caused by inertial parameter uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. Next, the quadratic programming algorithm is used to obtain an optimal open-loop control allocation scheme, where both energy consumption and actuator saturation have been considered in the allocation of the virtual control command. Then, a modified closed-loop control allocation scheme is proposed to reduce the allocation error under the actuator uncertainty. Finally, stability analysis of the closed-loop system with the proposed allocation scheme is provided. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

航天器姿控系统的PD型学习观测器故障重构

针对满足Lipschitz条件的航天器姿态控制系统这一非线性系统中存在的执行器加性故障、空间干扰与测量噪声问题,提出了基于PD型迭代学习观测器的故障重构方法。该方法具有期望的鲁棒性能指标,能够在系统存在空间干扰与测量噪声情况下实现对突变故障与时变故障等故障类型的精确重构。基于线性矩阵不等式技术给出系统化PD型迭代学习观测器的设计方法,并根据Lyapunov稳定性理论对上述设计方法的稳定性条件进行了理论证明,同时利用鲁棒技术抑制空间干扰与测量噪声对执行器故障重构的影响,通过线性矩阵不等式工具箱求解观测器参数矩阵。最后,将该方法应用到航天器姿态控制系统中,仿真结果证明了该方法的有效性。