Perspective methods for high performance Cubesat attitude control

This paper presents the overview of attitude control challenges for Cubesat missions with stringent pointing requirements and operational constraints. Survey of recent Cubesat attitude control applications is provided, followed by introduction of typical models needed for Cubesat attitude control problem formulation. Robustness to parametric uncertainty, disturbance rejection, constraints handling, and computational effort are the main identified control challenges. Three control design approaches, robust pole placement, H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</inf> design, and model predictive control are discussed with respect to the main challenges. Along with a traditional controller, each controller ability to cope with the given challenge is evaluated. Future research direction of attitude control formulation for two primary spacecraft operational modes, precise attitude tracking and attitude maneuvering, is justified.