A Hybrid Scheme of Synthesized Sliding Mode/Strain Rate Feedback Control Design for Flexible Spacecraft Attitude Maneuver Using Time Scale Decomposition

Presented herein is a new control approach for large angle attitude maneuver of flexible spacecraft. The singular perturbation theory (SPT) provides a useful tool for two time rate scale separation (mapping) of rigid and flexible body dynamics. The resulting slow and fast subsystems, enabling the use of two control approach for attitude (Modified Sliding Mode) and vibration Strain Rate Feedback (SRF) control of flexible spacecraft, respectively. An attractive feature of the present control approach is that the global stability of the entire system has been guaranteed while the controllers accomplished their tasks in coupled rigid/flexible dynamic domain without parasitic parameter interactions. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the present approach.