Observer-free control of satellite attitude using a single vector measurement

The existing methods in attitude control of satellites are based on using the estimate of satellite attitude, which is usually generated by using multiple vector measurements. In this paper we propose an output feedback controller that directly uses a single vector measurement and does not use an attitude estimator. The output feedback gain is computed by solving a generalized Riccati differential equation (GRDE). The existence of a solution to the GRDE depends on a uniform controllability condition.