Spacecraft attitude control in Hamiltonian framework

The paper presents a design scheme for attitude control algorithms of a generic spacecraft. Along with the system model formulated in Hamilton´s canonical form the algorithm uses information about a required potential energy and a dissipative term. The control action is the sum of the gradient of the potential energy and the dissipative force. It is shown that this control law makes the system uniformly and asymptotically stable to the desired reference point. Three problems are addressed in the paper: spacecraft stabilization in the inertial frame; libration damping with the use of electromagnetic coils; and a slew maneuver with an additional objective of avoiding undesirable regions, such as causing blindness to optical sensors.