Vibration control of flexible spacecraft actuated by piezoceramics via variable structure strategy

This paper presented a hybrid control scheme to vibration reduction of flexible spacecraft during rotational maneuver by using variable structure output feedback control (VSOFC) and piezoelectric materials. The control configuration included the attitude controller based on VSOFC method and vibration attenuator designed by constant-gain negative velocity feedback control. The attitude controller consisted of a linear feedback term and a discontinuous feedback term. With the presence of this attitude controller, an additional flexible control system acting on the flexible parts can be designed for vibration control. Compared with conventional proportional-derivative (PD) control, the developed control scheme guarantees not only the stability of the closed-loop system, but also yields better performance and robustness in the presence of parametric uncertainties and external disturbance. Simulation results are presented for the spacecraft model to show the effectiveness of the proposed control techniques.