Minimum-Time Spacecraft Attitude Motion Planning Using Objective Alternation in Derivative-Free Optimization

Abstract

This work presents an approach to spacecraft attitude motion planning which guarantees rest-to-rest maneuvers while satisfying pointing constraints. Attitude is represented on the group of three dimensional rotations. The angular velocity is expressed as weighted sum of some basis functions, and the weights are obtained by solving a constrained minimization problem in which the objective is the maneuvering time. However, the analytic expressions of objective and constraints of this minimization problem are not available. To solve the problem despite this obstacle, we propose to use a derivative-free approach based on sequential penalty. Moreover, to avoid local minima traps during the search, we propose to alternate phases in which two different objective functions are pursued. The control torque derived from the spacecraft inverse dynamics is continuously differentiable and vanishes at its endpoints. Results on practical cases taken from the literature demonstrate advantages over existing approaches.

Optimal attitude maneuvers in the presence of prohibited directions

“…This raises the issue of planning attitude maneuvers, desirably optimal in some sense, compatible with the pointing constraints. This question has been studied for some time (see, e.g., [1], [2], [3], [4]) and has, in recent years, attracted renewed interest (see, e.g., [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]) due both to new demands from space missions and to progress in control-theoretical methods. In this paper we show that the approach used in [2] for the case of a single forbidden direction can be extended to the case of an arbitrary number of forbidden directions.…”

Attitude maneuvers avoiding forbidden directions

“…This raises the issue of planning attitude maneuvers, desirably optimal in some sense, compatible with the pointing constraints. This question has been studied for some time [1][2][3][4] and has, in recent years, attracted renewed interest [5][6][7][8][9][10] due both to new demands from space missions and to progress in control-theoretical methods. In this paper we show that the control-theoretical approach used in Ref.…”