H Infinity Attitude Controller Design for a Rigid-Flexible Satellite Considering the Parametric Uncertainty

In designing of the Attitude Control System (ACS) is important take into account the influence of the structure’s flexibility, since they can interact with the satellite rigid motion, mainly, during translational and/or rotational maneuver, damaging the ACS pointing accuracy. In the linearization and reduction of the rigid-flexible satellite mathematic model, usually one loses some important information associated with the satellite true dynamical behavior. One way to recovery this information is include to the ACS design parametric and not parametric uncertainties of the system. The H infinity control method is able to take into account the parametric uncertainty in the control law design, so the controller becomes more robust. This paper presents the design of a robust controller using the H infinity control technique to control the attitude of a rigid-flexible satellite. The satellite model is represented by a flexible beam connected to a central rigid hub considering a set of parametric uncertainties. The results of the simulations have shown that the control law designed with the H-infinity control method was robust enough as to support the action of uncertainty and control the rigid flexible satellite attitude and suppressing vibrations.