Nonlinear input shaping control of flexible spacecraft reorientation manoeuvre

This paper presents a design of a novel feedforward controller for a large-angle reorientation manoeuvre of a spacecraft with flexible appendages, such as a telecommunication satellite. The controller combines collocated feedback and feedforward control. It uses an efficient numerical method for the computation for an optimal feedforward input shape for a nonlinear flexible system. The paper describes a proposed flexible spacecraft testbed developed at the Canadian Space Agency, and studies application of the controller to control of this testbed. The designed controller is shown to provide excellent performance in compensation of residual flexible vibrations for the nonlinear system in question