Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics and Control

(AE4313)

Course Notes No. 1 Part 1

Course Instructor
Dr. Q.P. Chu

Section of Control and Simulation

Faculty of Aerospace Engineering

Tel.: 015-27.83586
E-mail: q.p.chu@tudelft.nl
Office: K027
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 Course organisation

The course is given from February 16 to

March 30, 2017.
14 lectures in total will be given in Lecture-
room B of LR on the following dates
16 Feb. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
23 Feb. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
2 Mar. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
9 Mar. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
16 Mar. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
23 Mar. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
30 Mar. 2017 (8:45-12:30)
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 Information for the exam

Students who are willing to finish this course will have to

complete a take-home project assignment. There are
few assignments for students to select. Some of the
assignments combine even the course AE4313 (3 ECTS)
and the practicum AE4-313P (1 ECTS).

The assignments will be available by the end of the

course. The project will have to be completed individually.
A report and associated Matlab code will have to be
submitted. The deadline of the submission is Friday, 22
April 2017.

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 Learning objectives

Student will be capable of developing mathematical

models of spacecraft attitude dynamics and kinematics
Students will manage to design spacecraft attitude
determination and control systems using conventional
control techniques.
Students will also manage to design spacecraft attitude
determination and control systems using advanced
control techniques.

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 1. Introduction

Definitions of Spacecraft Attitude Motion, Attitude Determination and Control

Attitude of a spacecraft is its orientation in space.

Motion of a spacecraft in space is specified by its position, velocity,
orientation and rotational rate.
The first two quantities describe the translational motion of the centre
of mass of the spacecraft and are the subject of celestial mechanics
or orbit mechanics, while the latter two quantities describe the
rotational motion of the spacecraft body about the centre of mass and
are the subject of this lecture.
Attitude determination is the process of measuring and computing the
orientation of the spacecraft relative to certain reference, for example, the
Earth, the Sun, or a star.
Attitude control is the process of orienting the spacecraft in a specified,
predetermined direction based on the determined attitude.
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 Purpose of ADC: To measure and control the orientation of the
spacecraft, its instruments and appendages throughout the mission life
Orient and reorient the satellite (point sensors, align thrusters)
Stabilise the satellite (maintain desired orientation and sensor
pointing angles)
Minimize effects of disturbance torques (external and internal)

A complex (and, therefore, expensive) problem to solve because of the

need to accommodate a variety of mission and attitude modes:
Normal operations-may be several modes and potentially
conflicting instrument requirements
Transfer orbit-frequently in different orbit regime and orbit control by
aligning orbit boosters through attitude control
Orbit maneuvers-typically done throughout mission life; usually
require that operations not be interrupted
Fail safe (safe mode used when normal control fails)

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An Example of Spacecraft Coordinate Frame Definition

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An Example of Spacecraft Coordinate Frame Definition

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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (1)

P10.mpe

Gravity gradient stabilisation (roll-pitch) (video)

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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (2)

Yaw turn (video)

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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (3)

Destabilisation (video)
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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (4)

Pitch and yaw manoeuvres (video)

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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (5)

Euler eigen axis manoeuvre (video)

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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (6)

Orbit adjustment while attitude correctly aligned (video)

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Examples of Spacecraft Attitude Control (7)

Solar panel deployment while attitude controlled (video)

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 Spacecraft Attitude Control Concepts

Spin stabilisation
Dual spin stabilisation
Gravity gradient stabilisation
Aerodynamic stabilisation
Magnetic stabilisation
Three axis active attitude control
with reaction wheels assisted with thrusters
with reaction wheels assisted with magnetic torquers
with only thrusters
with control moment gyros assisted with thrusters
with control moment gyros assisted with magnetic
torquers

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 Attitude Control Concepts (1)

A typical spin stabilised spacecraft

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Attitude Control Concepts (2)

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 Attitude Control Concepts (3)
A typical spacecraft utilising dual-spin stabilisation

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 Attitude Control Concepts (4)
Examples of spacecraft utilising gravity gradient stabilisation

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 Attitude Control Concepts (5)

An example of a spacecraft utilising three-axis active control

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 Attitude Control Concepts (6)

An example of a spacecraft utilising three-axis active control

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 Attitude Control Concepts (7)

Rendezvous and docking utilising three axis and orbit control

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The Attitude Determination and Control System

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 List of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Rotational Kinematics
2.1 Direction cosine matrix
2.2 Euler angles
2.3 Eulers Eigenaxis rotation
2.4 Quaternions
2.5 Modified Rodrigues parameters
2.6 Kinematic differential equations

3. Rigid-Body Dynamics
3.1 Angular momentum of s rigid body
3.2 Inertia matrix
3.3 Principal axis
3.4 Eulers rotational equations of motion

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4. Attitude Determination and Control Devices
4.1 Attitude determination and control hardware
4.1.1 Sun sensors
4.1.2 Horizon Sensors
4.1.3 Magnetometers
4.1.4 Star sensors
4.1.5 Gyroscopes
4.1.6 Global positioning system
4.1.7 Momentum and reaction wheels
4.1.8 Control momentum gyros
4.1.9 Magnetic coils
4.1.10 Gas jets
4.2 State estimation attitude determination methods
4.3 Sensor integration and fusion techniques

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5. Gravity Gradient Stabilisation
5.1 The basic attitude control equation
5.2 Gravity gradient attitude control
5.3 Purely passive control
5.4 Time-domain behaviour of a purely passive GG-stabilised
satellite
5.5 Gravity gradient stabilisation with passive damping
5.6 Gravity gradient stabilisation with active damping

6. Three Axis Active Control

6.1 Design of a reaction wheel control system
6.2 Design of a bias momentum control system
6.3 Design of a control momentum gyro control system
6.4 Design of an all-thruster system

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7.Advanced Control Techniques with Application to Spacecraft
Attitude Control
7.1 Limitations of classical control techniques
7.2 Uncertainties of spacecraft models
7.3 On-line identification of spacecraft model parameters
7.4 Adaptive attitude control techniques
7.5 Non-linearity of spacecraft models
7.6 Non-linear dynamic inversion (feedback linearisation) with
applications
7.7 Spacecraft attitude control state and actuator constraints

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References:

1. Bong Wie, Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control, AIAA Education Series, 1998.
2. M.J. Sidi, Spacecraft Dynamics and Control, A Practical Engineering Approach,
Cambridge University Press, 1997, 409 pages.
3. M.H. Kaplan, Modern Spacecraft Dynamics and Control, Wileg, New York, 1976,
415 pages.
4. J.R. Wertz, Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control, Reidel, Dordrecht,
1978, 858 pages.
5. P.C. Hughes, Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics, Wiley, New York, 1986, 564 pages.
6. V.A. Chobotov, Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics and Control, Krieger, Malabar,
1991, 140 pages.
7. T,R. Kane, et al, Spacecraft Dynamics, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1983, 436 pages.
8. J.-P. Carrou (ed), Spaceflight Dynamics, Part 1, Cepadues, Toulouse, 1995, pp 1-
977.
9. J.-P. Carrou (ed), Spaceflight Dynamics, Part 2, Cepadues, Toulouse, 1995, pp
998-1996.
10. J.J.E. Slotine and W.Li, Applied Nonlinear Control, Prentice-Hall Inc. 1999.

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 2. Attitude Dynamics and Kinematics

Why do we need to know the spacecraft attitude dynamics and

kinematics mathematical models?

The mathematical models of attitude dynamics and kinematics are

used to analyse the characteristics of spacecraft motion.

The mathematical models of attitude dynamics and kinematics are

used to design the attitude control system.

The mathematical models of attitude dynamics and kinematics are

used to simulate the motion of spacecraft for verifying the designed
controllers.

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 Attitude Dynamics

Rigid body dynamics is usually adequate for describing spacecraft

attitude motion and forms the basis for most first-order analyses
Most effects are easily understood by using Euler's Law of
Angular Momentum (Eulers equation)

Flexible body dynamics

Basis for much academic analysis-not critical for many
practical spacecraft applications
Can become important for long wire booms or large, flexible
antennas
Undesirable flexible or non-rigid body effects (e.g. on-board
liquids, rotating or flexible appendages, on-board mechanical
devices) can be treated as disturbances
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 Attitude Kinematics

Rotational parameters can be described in various ways:

Direction cosine matrix (Mechanics)

Sequential orthogonal rotations (Euler angles, Flight Dynamics)
Eulers eigenaxis rotations (space-axis rotation, Euler parameters
or quaternions, modified Rodrigues parameters MRPs, this course)

Rotational kinematics can be described by different rotational

kinematic differential equations:

Kinematic differential equations in terms of direction cosine matrix

Kinematic differential equations in terms of Euler angles
Kinematic differential equations in terms of quaternions
Kinematic differential equations in terms of MRPs
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Direction cosine matrix

Consider a reference frame A with right-hand set of three orthogonal unit vectors
a1 , a2 , a3 and a reference frame B with another right-hand set of three
orthogonal unit vectors b1 , b2 , b3 as shown in Fig 2.1. Basis vectors b1 , b2 , b3
of B are expressed in terms of basis vectors a1 , a2 , a3 of A as follows:

b1 C11a1 C12 a2 C13a3

b2 C21a1 C22 a2 C23a3
b3 C31a1 C32 a2 C33 a3

b1 a1 C11 , b1 a2 C12 , b1 a3 C13

b2 a1 C21 , b2 a2 C22 , b2 a3 C23
b3 a1 C31 , b3 a2 C32 , b3 a3 C33

where Cij bi a j is the cosine of the angle between bi and a j , and Cij is called
the direction cosine.
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 a3

b3
b2
23
cos23 C23

22 a2

21 cos21 C21

a1 cos22 C22

b1 Fig 2.1 Reference frames and direction cosines

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The relation can also be written as

b1 C11 C12 C13 a1 a1

a C B / A a
b C
2 21 C 22 C 23 2 2
b3 C31 C32 C33 a3 a3

where C B / A is called the direction cosine matrix:

b1 a1 b1 a2 b1 a3 b1

CB/ A b2 a1 b2 a2 b2 a3 b2 a1 a2 a3
b3 a1 b3 a2 b3 a3 b3

The direction cosine matrix is also called the rotation matrix or coordinate
transformation matrix to B from A. We use further C for simplicity.

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Because each set of basis vectors of A and B consists of orthogonal unit
vectors, the direction cosine matrix C is the orthonormal matrix, thus we have

C 1 C T
CC T I C T C

Proof of orthonormality of the direction cosine matrix

b1 C11 C12 C13 a1 a1

a C a
b C
2 21 C 22 C 23 2 2
b3 C31 C32 C33 a3 a3

Transpose

b1 b2
b3 a1 a2 a3 C T

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 b1 b1
Dot-multiply on both sides


b2 b1 b2
b3 b2 a1 a2 a3 C T
b3 b3

a1
I C a2 a1
All axes in B are orthogonal
between each other. Same a2 a3 C T CIC T CC T
holds for A as well. a3

Given the two sets of reference frames A and B, an arbitrary vector H can
be expressed in terms of basis vectors of A and B as follows.

H H1a1 H 2 a2 H 3a3
H1'b1 H 2' b2 H 3' b3

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We have then
H1' b1 H b1 H1a1 H 2 a2 H 3a3
H 2' b2 H b2 H1a1 H 2 a2 H 3a3
H 3' b3 H b3 H1a1 H 2 a2 H 3a3

which can be written in matrix form

H1' b1 a1 b1 a2 b1 a3 H1 H1
'
H 2 b2 a1 b2 a2 b2 a3 H 2 C H 2
H 3' b3 a1 b3 a2 b3 a3 H 3 H 3

This means that the components of a vector can also be transformed from
one reference frame to another using the direction cosine matrix.

Other properties of the direction cosine matrix can also be proved.

C 1 can be proved as

CC T I CC T I CC T C C T C 1 C 1
2

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The elements of the direction cosine matrix can be expressed using their
cofactors

C11 C22C33 C23C32; C12 C23C31 C21C33; C13 C21C32 C22C31

Using

b1 b2 b3 ; a1 a2 a3 ; a2 a3 a1 ; a3 a1 a2 ; c d d c

b1 C11a1 C12a2 C13a3 b2 b3 C21a1 C22a2 C23a3 C31a1 C32a2 C33a3

C21C31a1 a1 C22C31a2 a1 C23C31a3 a1
C21C32a1 a2 C22C32a2 a2 C23C32a3 a2
C21C33a1 a3 C22C33a2 a3 C23C33a3 a3
C22C31a3 C23C31a2 C21C32a3 C23C32a1 C21C33a2 C22C33a1
C22C33 C23C32 a1 C23C31 C21C33 a2 C21C32 C22C31 a3

C11 C22C33 C23C32 ; C12 C23C31 C21C33 ; C13 C21C32 C22C31

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Relations
C112 C122 C132 1
2
C21 C22
2
C23
2
1
2
C31 C32
2
C33
2
1

C11C21 C12C22 C13C23 0

C11C31 C12C32 C13C33 0
C21C11 C22C12 C23C13 0
C21C31 C22C31 C23C33 0
C31C11 C32C12 C33C13 0
C31C21 C32C22 C33C23 0

can be easily proved using

C11 C12 C13 C11 C21 C31 1 0 0

CC T C21 C22 C23 C12 C22 C32 I 0 1 0
C31 C32 C33 C13 C23 C33 0 0 1
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Sequential rotations and Euler angles

Euler angles are defined by sequential rotations of the original and intermediate
reference frames.

Any sequence of rotations can be applied to generate Euler angles. In case of

3-2-1 rotation sequence

cos 3 sin 3 0
C3 3 sin 3 cos 3 0 : A' A
0 0 1
cos 2 0 sin 2
C2 2 0 1 0 : A '' A '
sin 2 0 cos 2
1 0 0
C1 1 0 cos1 sin 1 : B A ''
0 sin 1 cos1

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 Example of elementary transformation matrix

a3' a3

a3' cos cos

a2'
a2' sin sin
a2

a2
a3' sin sin a cos 1 cos
'
2

a1' a1
a1 a1' a2' a2 a2' cos a3 a2' sin a2 cos a3 sin

a 1 a3' a2 a3' sin a3 a3' cos a2 sin a3 cos

1
'
0 0 a1

'
a
2 0 cos sin a2
a' 0 sin cos a3 All reference frame axes are unit vectors.
3
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Each rotation is described as

a1' cos 3 sin 3 0 a1 a1

'
a2 sin 3 cos 3 0 a2 C3 3 a2 : A' A
a3' 0 1 a3 a3
0
a1'' cos 2 0 sin 2 a1' a1'
''
a2 0 1 0 a2' C2 2 a2' : A '' A '
a3'' sin 2 0 cos 2 a3' a3'

b1 1 0 0 a1'' a1''

a '' C a '' : B A ''
b
2 0 cos 1 sin 1 2 1 1 2
b3 0 sin 1 cos1 a3
' ' a ''
3

By combining these rotations, we have

b1 a1'' a1' a1
'' ' a
b
2 C a
1 1 2 C
1 1 C 2 a
2 2 C
1 1 C 2 2 C
3 3 2
b3 a3
' ' a3
'
a3
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