Periodic H2 synthesis for spacecraft attitude control with magnetorquers and reaction wheels

Particularly attractive for small satellites, the use of magnetic torquers for attitude control is still a difficult problem. Indeed, equations are naturally time-varying and suffers from controllability issues. In this paper, a generic model, taking different kinds of pointing and different kinds of actuators into account, is proposed, linearized and then discretized. Recent studies demonstrate how combining magnetorquers and reaction wheels is attractive. Following this line, latest LMI synthesis techniques for static periodic controller are applied in this paper to the attitude control problem of a spacecraft equipped with both actuation systems. Simulation results are provided, showing the performance of the obtained control law.