15th Triennial World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control
  Barcelona, 21–26 July 2002 
PREDICTIVE ATTITUDE CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR SATELLITES WITH MAGNETIC ACTUATORS
E. Silani and M. Lovera
Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di
Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy,
Tel. +39-02-23993650, Fax +39-02-23993412,
E-mail: [silani,lovera]@elet.polimi.it

The problem of attitude stabilization for a small spacecraft using only magnetic coils as actuators is considered and a novel approach to the problem is given. A solution to the magnetic attitude control problem in term of model-based predictive control is proposed and analyzed. Simulation results are also given, which show the feasibility of the approach.
Keywords: Attitude control, constraints, predictive control, satellite control applications, spacecraft vehicles, time-varying systems
Session slot T-Tu-A06: Space Craft and Missile Control/Area code 8a : Aerospace