Attitude dynamics and maneuvering of flexible space systems

In this thesis, the problem of attitude dynamics and maneuvering of flexible, multibody space systems is studied. A formulation for deriving the equations of motion of these systems, based on Kane's method, is presented. In this formulation the concepts of constrained motion and the effect of nonlinear coupling between rigid-body motion and the elastic vibrations are examined in depth.Dynamics of constrained systems is studied with the main objective of deriving the complete, minimum-dimension set of equations of motion.The effect of rigid-body motion on the dynamic behavior of flexible systems, known as dynamic or geometric stiffening effect, is examined in detail.A formulation is developed and implemented in a symbolic computer code, FLXSIM, for deriving the analytical form of the equations of motion.Application of artificial constrained motion to devise open-loop control laws for tracking problems is proposed.A perturbation technique in conjunction with a phase-plane based optimal control analysis is proposed for near-minimum-time maneuvering of flexible multibody systems moving along a prescribed trajectory. (Abstract shortened by UMI.