Nonlinear H∞ for Spacecraft Attitude Control

This paper presents a nonlinear state feedback attitude control design method for spacecraft large angle maneuvers, which is subject to moment-of-inertia (MOI) uncertainty. Moreover, the operation of attitude maneuver is affected by external disturbances. The attitude control design thus employs a nonlinear method to achieve stability and robustness so that both MOI uncertainty and external disturbances can be accounted for. In the paper, a solution for robust spacecraft attitude control is conjectured and shown to satisfy the nonlinear criterion. This results in a nonlinear control law that is capable of robustly stabilizing the maneuver in the presence of external disturbance and spacecraft inertia uncertainty. The simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.