Robust H _∞ controller design for attitude stabilization of flexible spacecraft with input constraints

This paper addresses the attitude stabilization and vibration suppression problem for flexible spacecraft subject to model parameter uncertainty, controller perturbations, external disturbances and input constraints. The attitude model of flexible spacecraft is described and converted into a state space form in terms of passive and active vibration suppression schemes. A novel state feedback controller is proposed based on the exactly available expectation of a new variable, which is introduced to model a randomly occurring controller gain perturbation. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, sufficient conditions for the existence of the nonfragile H _∞ controller considering input constraints are given based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) in terms of additive perturbation and multiplicative perturbation. Then, the developed controller subject to required constraints can be obtained, where the nonfragile property is fully considered to improve the tolerance to uncertainties in the controller. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control strategy in attitude stabilization and vibration suppression, where it should be noted that the passive vibration suppression scheme is superior for high natural frequencies while the active vibration suppression scheme is superior for low natural frequencies. Moreover, the low natural frequencies have more influence on the performance of attitude stabilization and vibration suppression.