Practical Finite-Time Attitude Reorientation Control for Rigid Spacecraft With Forbidden Pointing Constraints and Physical Limitations

• Published in: IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems 2024-10, p.1-11
• Main Authors: Su, Yuhan, Shen, Shaoping, Hu, Zikun, Li, Zhibin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerospace and electronic systems; Angular velocity; Attitude control; Control barrier function; finite-time stability; forbidden pointing constraints; Instruments; Kinematics; Lyapunov methods; prescribed performance control; Quaternions; Safety; Space vehicles; spacecraft attitude reorientation; Vectors
• ISSN: 0018-9251; 1557-9603
• DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2024.3486679

This article investigates the spacecraft attitude reorientation problem with forbidden pointing constraints and physical limitations. Relying on kinematics of the spacecraft, a nominal virtual angular velocity is first designed to guarantee that the spacecraft can maneuver to the desired attitude within a finite settling time while avoiding the unwinding problem. Then, based on control barrier function theory, a safety filter is constructed to synthesize a safe virtual angular velocity which ensures the satisfaction of attitude constraints and angular velocity limitations. At the dynamic system level, a prescribed performance controller is developed to provide feasible transient and steady-state performance requirements for the angular velocity tracking error. Moreover, an anti-saturation compensator is introduced to mitigate control input saturation. Lyapunov methods are employed to demonstrate the practical finite-time stability of the closed-loop system under attitude pointing constraints, physical limitations, and external disturbances. Two numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed approach.