Satellite Attitude Control System Design Taking into Account the Fuel Slosh and Flexible Dynamics

The design of the spacecraft Attitude Control System (ACS) becomes more complex when the spacecraft has different type of components like, flexible solar panels, antennas, mechanical manipulators and tanks with fuel. The interaction between the fuel slosh motion, the panel’s flexible motion and the satellite rigid motion during translational and/or rotational manoeuvre can change the spacecraft center of mass position damaging the ACS pointing accuracy. This type of problem can be considered as a Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) where some movable or deformable structure interacts with an internal fluid. This paper develops a mathematical model for a rigid-flexible satellite with tank with fuel. The slosh dynamics is modelled using a common pendulum model and it is considered to be unactuated. The control inputs are defined by a transverse body fixed force and a moment about the centre of mass. A comparative investigation designing the satellite ACS by the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) methods is done. One has obtained a significant improvement in the satellite ACS performance and robustness of what has been done previously, since it controls the rigid-flexible satellite and the fuel slosh motion, simultaneously.