Passivity control with practically finite-time convergence for large space structures

A nonlinear output feedback control law based on passivity is proposed to reduce the vibration of large space structures. The considered system is assumed to be equipped with collocated actuators and sensors. The concept of practically finite-time stability is first developed to describe the finite-time convergence of a passive system. Then, an output feedback is introduced to drive the trajectories of a passive system into a small set around the origin in finite time. Finally, the proposed control strategy is applied to the vibration suppression of large space structures with distributed thrusters and velocity sensors or torque outputting devices and angular rate sensors. Numerical simulations are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.