Electric Satellite Station Keeping, Attitude Control, and Momentum Management by MPC

We propose a model predictive control (MPC) policy for simultaneous station keeping, attitude control, and momentum management of a low-thrust nadir-pointing geostationary satellite equipped with reaction wheels and ON-OFF electric thrusters mounted on boom assemblies. Attitude control is performed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on control systems technology 2021-07, Vol.29 (4), p.1475-1489
Main Authors: Caverly, Ryan J., Cairano, Stefano Di, Weiss, Avishai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude control
Control theory
electric propulsion
Electric thrusters
Horizon
model predictive control (MPC)
Momentum
momentum management
Noise measurement
Orbits
Predictive control
Propellant consumption
Propulsion
Quantization (signal)
Reaction wheels
satellite
Satellite attitude control
Satellites
Spacecraft
spacecraft control
Synchronous satellites
Thrust
Thrusters
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Summary:We propose a model predictive control (MPC) policy for simultaneous station keeping, attitude control, and momentum management of a low-thrust nadir-pointing geostationary satellite equipped with reaction wheels and ON-OFF electric thrusters mounted on boom assemblies. Attitude control is performed using an inner loop SO(3)-based control law with the reaction wheels, while the outer loop MPC policy maintains the satellite within a narrow station-keeping window and performs momentum management using electric thrusters. For reducing propellant consumption, our MPC uses two different prediction horizons: a short horizon for the states associated with the orbit's inclination and a longer horizon for all other states. Furthermore, to handle the ON-OFF nature of the thruster while retaining low computational burden, we develop a strategy for quantizing the continuous thrust command, which also allows for trading off the number thrust pulses and fuel consumption. We validate the controller in a closed-loop simulation with the high-precision orbit propagation provided by the Systems Tool Kit (STK) and assess the robustness to model uncertainty and measurement noise.
ISSN:1063-6536
1558-0865
DOI:10.1109/TCST.2020.3014601