Star-Tracker-Constrained Attitude MPC for CubeSats
This addresses attitude control challenges for CubeSats in space missions, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing MPC methods with specific constraints.
The paper tackles the problem of maintaining star-tracker availability during ground-target tracking for CubeSats by developing an online linear model predictive control (MPC) framework for slew maneuvers, achieving compatibility with aerospace flight-software practices and lower computational complexity than nonlinear MPC schemes.
This paper presents an online linear model predictive control (MPC) framework for slew maneuvers that maintains star-tracker availability during ground-target tracking. The nonlinear rigid-body dynamics and geometric exclusion constraints are analytically linearized about the current state estimate at each control step, yielding a time-varying linear MPC formulation cast as a standard quadratic program (QP). This structure is compatible with established aerospace flight-software practices and offers a computational profile with lower online complexity than comparable nonlinear MPC schemes. The controller incorporates angular-rate, actuator, and star-tracker exclusion constraints over a receding horizon. Performance is assessed in high-fidelity nonlinear model-in-the-loop simulations using NASA's "42" spacecraft dynamics simulator, including a Monte Carlo campaign over varying target geometries and inertia perturbations.