Attitude Control for Agile Spacecraft Installed with Reaction Wheels

In these days, demand for agile spacecraft is gradually increasing, due to the fact that agile spacecraft can improve mission capability. In this paper, an attitude control logic based on reaction wheels that can enhance agility of spacecraft is proposed. Three methods are suggested, and all three or part of them can be integrated to the existing attitude control system. First, a feedforward/feedback controller is introduced, and its pros and cons are provided, compared to the conventional feedback controller. Second, an attitude command generation method that fully utilizes torque/momentum capacities of reaction wheels is proposed. Third, a torque (current) control mode for internal wheel control is introduced. Numerical results verify that the settling time can be significantly reduced by employing the feedforward/feedback control method, especially for large angle maneuver.