Spacecraft attitude control using explicit model predictive control

  • Authors:

  • ØYvind HegrenæS;Jan Tommy Gravdahl;Petter TøNdel

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway and University Graduate Center at Kjeller, N-2027 Kjeller, Norway;Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway;Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

  • Venue:
  • Automatica (Journal of IFAC)
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

In this paper, an explicit model predictive controller for the attitude of a satellite is designed. Explicit solutions to constrained linear MPC problems can be computed by solving multi-parametric quadratic programs (mpQP), where the parameters are the components of the state vector. The solution to the mpQP is a piecewise affine (PWA) function, which can be evaluated at each sample to obtain the optimal control law. The on-line computation effort is restricted to a table-lookup, and the controller can be implemented on inexpensive hardware as fixed-point arithmetics can be used. This is useful for systems with limited power and CPU resources. An example of such systems is micro-satellites, which is the focus of this paper. In particular, the explicit MPC (eMPC) approach is applied to the SSETI/ESEO micro-satellite, initiated by the European Space Agency (esa). The theoretical results are supported by simulations.