Optimal control for despin of underactuated tumbling satellites
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- A critical issue that must be addressed to enable on-orbit servicing of satellites or removal of space debris is how to capture and despin an object that may be tumbling. The scenario addressed by this work is the case of a damaged or uncooperative tumbling object. Such an object could be a non-responsive "zombiesat'' that needs to be serviced, or a piece of space debris that needs to be removed. This scenario is of particular importance because uncooperative tumbling objects can pose a danger to active satellites in nearby orbits. Servicing tumbling satellites requires several steps. One of the most critical is to despin the satellite, i.e. to drive its angular momentum towards zero. Solving for the optimal thruster commands to perform the despin is computationally complex, especially when the actuation is severely limited as can be the case for an uncooperative tumbling satellite. This problem can be solved in principle using existing numerical dynamic programming (NDP) methods, but the data storage requirements of the solution exceed the capabilities of current satellite computers. Closed form solutions also exist, but only for special cases with specific thruster orientations, inertia properties, and cost functionals. This dissertation describes a control approach that provides a reduced computational cost solution to the despin problem for severely underactuated satellites undergoing general tumbling motion. The approach is based on an NDP algorithm, but the data storage requirements are reduced by up to three orders of magnitude and the computation time requirements are reduced by up to one order of magnitude through a selection of novel ``trajectory'' state and staging variables that incorporates the underlying dynamics into NDP. Only the rotational degrees of freedom are considered in this work. Simulation and experimental results are presented. Simulations were performed for two important tumbling satellite scenarios and demonstrate the computational benefits of using trajectory state and staging variables in NDP. Laboratory experiments were performed using a small-scale tumbling satellite simulator and demonstrate the viability of the control approach.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Sheinfeld, Daniel Jacob |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| Primary advisor | Rock, Stephen M |
| Thesis advisor | Rock, Stephen M |
| Thesis advisor | Alonso, Juan José, 1968- |
| Thesis advisor | Close, Sigrid, 1971- |
| Advisor | Alonso, Juan José, 1968- |
| Advisor | Close, Sigrid, 1971- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Daniel Sheinfeld. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Daniel Jacob Sheinfeld
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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