Vibration suppression-based attitude control for flexible spacecraft

In this paper, a novel approach for high-accuracy attitude control in a flexible spacecraft is developed by compensating and damping the vibration of the flexible appendage. A vibration suppression-based attitude controller (VSAC) that addresses the coupling disturbance in attitude dynamics that is generated by the vibration of the flexible appendage is developed for flexible spacecraft. The proposed VSAC integrates the existing attitude control theories with vibration suppression control strategies by combining a time delay feedback controller with a PD controller. The stability of the flexible spacecraft control system under the proposed VSAC is investigated in time domain, and the damping effect of the proposed VSAC on the vibration of the flexible appendage is analyzed in frequency domain. The proposed VSAC utilizes the traditional attitude controller and vibration suppression controller, which can not only effectively improve the performance of attitude control system but also efficiently damp the vibration of the flexible appendage. Finally, numerical simulations are performed, and analysis and conclusions are presented.