Attitude control of agile spacecraft using momentum exchange devices

Abstract

This paper is focused on designing an implementable control law to perform spacecraft various missions using momentum exchange devices such as reaction wheels(RWs) and control moment gyros(CMGs). A compact equation of motion of a spacecraft installed with various momentum exchange devices is derived in this paper. A hybrid control law is proposed for precision attitude control of agile spacecraft. The control law proposed in this paper allocates control torque to the CMGs and the RWs adequately to satisfy the precision attitude control and large angle maneuver simultaneously. The saturation problem of reaction wheels and the singularity problem of control moment gyros are considered. The problems are successfully resolved by using the proposed hybrid closed loop control law. Finally, the proposed hybrid control law is demonstrated by numerical simulations.