Minimum-time attitude maneuver and robust attitude control of small satellite mounted with communication antenna

This paper proposes a simultaneous control method for small satellites mounted with a communication antenna; the objective is to reduce the time involved in satellite maneuver and antenna motion. Recently, small Earth observation satellites have been utilized, even though agile large angle satellite attitude maneuver has been in demand. Small Earth observation satellites acquire high-resolution data, resulting in an increase in the time required for data communication. Therefore, it has become important to ensure that small Earth observation satellites are capable of being maneuvered rapidly so that communication time can be extended by using a data relay system. The purpose of this study is to extend the time for Earth observation and data communication even if satellite has model uncertainty or space disturbance. In order to achieve this, we propose a simultaneous control method for satellite maneuver and antenna motion by using a nonlinear programming problem (NLP) and robust servo control method by using the state dependent Riccati equation (SDRE).