Robust attitude controller for spacecraft with magnetically suspended flywheels

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the spacecraft attitude based on a novel actuator, i.e., magnetically suspended flywheel (MSFW). The air gaps of magnetic bearings lead to the magnetically suspended rotor angular displacements, which would have great inner disturbances on spacecraft and further lead to the spacecraft inertia uncertainty. This paper proposes the spacecraft dynamics based on MSFWs with considering the potential rotor angular displacements from MSFWs. To deal with the disturbances and model uncertainties, a robust structure attitude controller is proposed. Simulated annealing (SA) method is used to optimize the attitude control system. The performance of the SA-based robust attitude controller is demonstrated by the simulation results, and its robustness to disturbances and model uncertainties.