Leader/Follower synchronization of satellite attitude without angular velocity measurements

In this paper we propose a Leader/Follower output feedback synchronization scheme for control of the attitude of two satellites when angular velocity measurements are not available. Nonlinear observers are used to estimate the angular velocities. The attitudes of the satellites are represented by unit quaternions, and the control design is based on vectorial observer backstepping. The analysis of the method shows that the rotation matrices representing the attitude errors between the follower and the leader, and between the leader and its reference attitude, converge to the identity matrix for any initial conditions. The control scheme is simulated to validate the results.

[1]  P. Wang,et al.  Synchronized Formation Rotation and Attitude Control of Multiple Free-Flying Spacecraft , 1997 .

[2]  Jan Tommy Gravdahl,et al.  Modeling and simulation for automatic control , 2002 .

[3]  Anders Robertsson,et al.  Comments on "Nonlinear output feedback control of dynamically positioned ships using vectorial observer backstepping" , 1998, IEEE Trans. Control. Syst. Technol..

[4]  A. Teel A nonlinear small gain theorem for the analysis of control systems with saturation , 1996, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control..

[5]  J. Wen,et al.  The attitude control problem , 1991 .

[6]  Jianbo Lu,et al.  Nonlinear Quaternion Feedback Control For Spacecraft Via Angular Velocity Shaping , 1994, Proceedings of 1994 American Control Conference - ACC '94.

[7]  H. R. Harrison,et al.  Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: a Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality , J. B. Kuipers, Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. 1999. 372pp. Illustrated. £35.00. ISBN 0-691-05872-5. , 1999, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[8]  D J Inman,et al.  Development of a robust non-linear observer for dynamic positioning of ships , 2004 .

[9]  V. Kapila,et al.  A quaternion-based adaptive attitude tracking controller without velocity measurements , 2000, Proceedings of the 39th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.00CH37187).

[10]  Wei Kang,et al.  Co-ordinated attitude control of multi-satellite systems† , 2002 .

[11]  Guang Yang,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics and output feedback control of multiple spacecraft in elliptical orbits , 2000, Proceedings of the 2000 American Control Conference. ACC (IEEE Cat. No.00CH36334).

[12]  Randal W. Beard,et al.  Synchronized multiple spacecraft rotations , 2002, Autom..

[13]  J. Kuipers Quaternions and Rotation Sequences , 1998 .

[14]  Thor I. Fossen,et al.  Nonlinear output feedback control of dynamically positioned ships using vectorial observer backstepping , 1998, IEEE Trans. Control. Syst. Technol..

[15]  Henk Nijmeijer,et al.  Master-Slave synchronization of robot manipulators , 2004 .

[16]  John T. Wen,et al.  Attitude control without angular velocity measurement: a passivity approach , 1995, Proceedings of 1995 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[17]  Andy Sparks,et al.  Theory and applications of formation control in a perceptive referenced frame , 2000, Proceedings of the 39th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.00CH37187).

[18]  Vikram Kapila,et al.  Adaptive nonlinear control for spacecraft formation flying with coupled translational and attitude dynamics , 2001, Proceedings of the 40th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.01CH37228).

[19]  D. Mayne Nonlinear and Adaptive Control Design [Book Review] , 1996, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

[20]  May-Win L. Thein,et al.  Spacecraft attitude and rate estimation using sliding mode observers , 2003, International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies, 2003. RAST '03. Proceedings of.

[21]  P. Wang,et al.  Coordination and control of multiple microspacecraft moving in formation , 1996 .

[22]  Randal W. Beard,et al.  A coordination architecture for spacecraft formation control , 2001, IEEE Trans. Control. Syst. Technol..

[23]  F.Y. Hadaegh,et al.  A survey of spacecraft formation flying guidance and control. Part II: control , 2004, Proceedings of the 2004 American Control Conference.

[24]  S. Salcudean A globally convergent angular velocity observer for rigid body motion , 1991 .