The Dynamics Characteristics of Flexible Spacecraft and its Closed-Loop Stability with Passive Control

Passive control is the most popular methodology for flexible spacecraft while it remains an open problem whether the closed-loop performance can be achieved only with passive control subject to the coupling modes of rigid and flexibility. Also, the closed-loop performance of passive PD control based on the dynamics of the Euler angle parameterization of spacecraft, which has been widely used in practice, is yet to be addressed. Towards these challenges, by introducing the input-output exact linearization theory and Lyapunov theory, the authors show that the closed-loop performance for flexible spacecraft with rigid and flexible modes can be achieved by adjusting the parameters of the passive controllers sufficiently large. This is done by firstly transforming the flexible spacecraft dynamics into an exact feedback linearization standard form, and then analyzing the closed-loop performance of flexible spacecraft.