Robust control of flexible spacecraft during large-angle attitude maneuver

A new robust control scheme for fast and large-angle attitude maneuver of flexible spacecraft was presented. It is found that linear matrix inequality (LMI) method is effective in solving the robust control problem of a linear parameter-dependent system. Meanwhile, the gain-scheduled technique reduces the conservatism of the H-infinity controller and ensures the feasibility of LMI constraint. Numerical simulation results show that the gain scheduled robust controller is highly capable of disturbance attenuation and accurate tracking, and that the vibration modes of flexible appendages converge quickly with the full-state feedback controller at the end of slewing.