Experimental Validation of Constrained Spacecraft Attitude Planning via Invariant Sets

Abstract

This paper experimentally validates the invariant-set motion planner (ISMP) for the spacecraft attitude motion planning problem. Three novel results are presented that enable the experimental implementation: i) a method for gridding quaternions from the keep-in cone, ii) a method for scaling the invariant sets to enforce angular velocity constraints, and iii) a method for scaling the sets used by the ISMP to ensure their positive invariance despite this torque constraint. The ISMP is experimentally validated through three experimental scenarios. In the first scenario, the spacecraft must perform a re-orientation maneuver that caused it to move toward a keep-out cone. The ISMP manages the momentum of the spacecraft to prevent it from overshooting into the keep-out cone. In the second scenario, the spacecraft performs a slalom maneuver to avoid a pair of keep-out cones. The ISMP must reverse the momentum of the spacecraft to transition from avoiding the first keep-out cone to the second. The final scenario is an unrealistically difficult scenario designed to stress-test the capabilities of the ISMP where the spacecraft must escape from a maze of keep-out cones. These results demonstrate the ability of the ISMP to control the spacecraft attitude while enforcing state and input constraints.