The dynamics of a rotating tethered satellite system （TSS） in the vicinity of libration points are highly nonlinear and inherently unstable. In order to fulfill the station-keep control of the rotating TSS along halo orbits, a nonlinear output tracking control scheme based on the θ- D technique is proposed. Compared with the popular time-variant linear quadratic regulator （LQR） controller, this approach overcomes some limitations such as on-line computations of the algebraic Riccati equation. Besides, the obtained nonlinear suboptimal controller is in a closed form and easy to implement. Numerical simulations show that the TTS trajectories track the periodic reference orbit with low energy consumption in the presence of both tether and initial injection errors. The axis of rotation can keep pointing to an inertial specific object to fulfill an observation mission. In addition, the thrusts required by the controller are in an acceptable range and can be implemented through some low-thrust propulsion devices.
This paper deals with the problem of cooperative attitude tracking with time-varying communication delays as well as the delays between inter-synchronization control parts and self-tracking control parts in the spacecraft formation flying. First, we present the attitude synchronization tracking control algorithms and analyze the sufficient delay-dependent stability condition with the choice of a Lyapunov function when the angular velocity can be measured. More specifically, a class of linear filters is developed to derive an output feedback control law without having direct information of the angular velocity, which is significant for practical applications with low-cost configurations of spacecraft. Using a well-chosen Lyapunov-Krasovskii function, it is proven that the presented control law can make the spacecraft formation attitude tracking system synchronous and achieve ex- ponential stability, in the face of model uncertainties, as well as non-uniform time-varying delays in communication links and different control parts. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.
