Nonlinear input shaping control of flexible spacecraft reorientation maneuver

A design is presented of a novel feedforward controller for-a large-angle reorientation maneuver of a spacecraft with flexible appendages, such as a telecommunication satellite. The controller combines collocated feedback and feedforward control. Its uses an efficient and conceptually simple numerical method for the computation of an optimal. feedforward input shape for a nonlinear flexible system, The method is based on a minimization of a single regularized performance index instead of solution of a terminal control problem, A proposed flexible spacecraft testbed developed at the Canadian Space Agency is described, and application of the designed control scheme to this testbed is studied. The designed controller is shown to provide excellent performance in compensation of residual flexible vibrations for the nonlinear system in question.