Robust adaptive controller design for spacecraft during attitude maneuver

This paper proposes a robust adaptive controller for the attitude maneuver problem of rigid spacecraft in the presence of unknown inertia matrix and external disturbance torques. The proposed design algorithm, which combined adaptive backstepping technique with nonlinear damping algorithm, guaranteed that the inertial parameters of the spacecraft were estimated and the uncertain term of disturbance torques was counteracted. The proposed controller ensured all states were globally uniformly ultimate bounded and attitude maneuver errors converged to a small set around the equilibrium point. By using Matlab/Simulink programming, the paper also discussed the modeling and simulation of spacecraft attitude maneuver system. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control algorithm.