Pose-Tracking Controller for Satellites with Time-Varying Inertia

Copyright © 2014 by the authors, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.Presented at AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition, San Diego, CA, August 4-7, 2014.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2014-4455Satellite proximity operations have been identified by NASA and the USAF as a crucial technology that could enable a series of new missions in space. Such missions would require a satellite to simultaneously and accurately track time-varying relative position and attitude profiles. Moreover, the mass and moment of inertia of a satellite are also typically time-varying, which makes this problem even more challenging. Based on recent results in dual quaternions, a nonlinear adaptive position and attitude tracking controller for satellites with unknown and time-varying mass and inertia matrix is proposed. Dual quaternions are used to represent jointly the position and attitude of the satellite. The controller is shown to ensure almost global asymptotic stability of the combined translational and rotational position and velocity tracking errors. Moreover, sufficient conditions on the reference motion are provided that guarantee mass and inertia matrix identification. The controller compensates for the gravity force, the gravity-gradient torque, Earth's oblateness, and unknown constant disturbance forces and torques. The proposed controller is especially suited for satellites with relatively high and quick variations of mass and moment of inertia, such as highly maneuverable small satellites equipped with relatively powerful thrusters and control moment gyros