Vibration reduction of flexible satellite using pseudo rate modulated thrusters and smart materials during attitude maneuvers

This paper presents an approach to vibration reduction of a flexible spacecraft during rest-to-rest maneuvers by using a Pseudo Rate Modulator (PSR) for thruster firings and smart materials for active vibration suppression. Based on quaternion and the angular rate, the Lyapunov technique is applied in the design of a PD controller, which is able not only to stabilize the spacecraft attitude but also suppress vibrations of the flexible solar panels. The PSR modulation is used to control the on-off thrusters for attitude maneuvers to reduce vibration introduced to the flexible solar panels, which can be considered as a passive means for vibration reduction. Nevertheless, some residual micro-vibrations may be present. On the contrary, the technique of PPF control using smart materials as sensors/actuators is more suitable for suppression of micro-vibrations, i.e., fine tuning the system at the final stage of operations, which is desirable for precision pointing of advanced spacecraft. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed approach can significantly reduce the vibration of the flexible appendages during and after the maneuver operations.