Vibration Control of a Rigid-Flexible Satellite During Attitude Maneuver

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents the results of an active structural vibration control of a flexible satellite performed by a proof-mass actuator (PMA) during an attitude rotation maneuver. The satellite investigated is composed of a rigid rub plus a cantilevered flexible beam with the PMA located at the beam free end. As the satellite maneuvers from rest to a pre-defined position, the rigid body motion can excite the flexible part of the satellite. The PMA tasks is to damp-out any residual vibration caused by this maneuver efficiently. The rigid/flexible satellite is modeled, using a relatively simple structural dynamics approach. Having found the vibration modes of the structure, expressions for kinetic and potential energy are derived. Lagrange’s equation is then applied to obtain the satellite equations of motion. The PMA gain selection is based oil an analytical approach which shows that the pole and zero of the fundamental mode is dominant. The efficiency of the PMA using velocity feedback with a PI control law was examined by numerical simulations for different control maneuvers strategies. It was shown that one such controller has damped the residual flexible vibration successfully. However, it was also shown that the control system efficiency is function of the maneuver strategy.