Energy-based robust controller design for flexible spacecraft

Abstract

This paper presents a class of energy-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 systems but also the asymptotic stability of the truncated system, which is obgained 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 simulation are carried out on a kind of spacecraft with one flexible appendage and satisfactory results are obtained.