Robust optimal sun-pointing control of a large solar power satellite

Abstract The robust optimal sun-pointing control strategy for a large geostationary solar power satellite (SPS) is addressed in this paper. The SPS is considered as a huge rigid body, and the sun-pointing dynamics are firstly proposed in the state space representation. The perturbation effects caused by gravity gradient, solar radiation pressure and microwave reaction are investigated. To perform sun-pointing maneuvers, a periodically time-varying robust optimal LQR controller is designed to assess the pointing accuracy and the control inputs. It should be noted that, to reduce the pointing errors, the disturbance rejection technique is combined into the proposed LQR controller. A recursive algorithm is then proposed to solve the optimal LQR control gain. Simulation results are finally provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed closed-loop system.