Three-Axis Satellite Attitude Control Based on Magnetic Torquing

Abstract

: Magnetic torquing is attractive as a control principle on small satellites. The actuation principle is to use the interaction between the earth's magnetic field and magnetic field generated by a coil set in the satellite. This control principle is inherently nonlinear, and difficult to use because control torques can only be generated perpendicular to the geomagnetic field vector. This has been a serious obstacle for using magnetorquer based control for three-axis attitude control. This paper considers the problem from time-varying, nonlinear system point of view and suggests a new controller which is shown to be globally stable. A rigorous stability analysis is presented, and simulation results show convincing performance over the entire envelope of operation. Keywords: Attitude control, satellite control, time-varying systems, periodic motion, Lyapunov stability, quaternion feedback. 1 INTRODUCTION Several control methods have been developed over the past years since the first sat..