Input Disturbance Rejection Using H_∞ Synthesis for High-Performance Spacecraft Attitude Control

This paper presents the design and verification of an attitude control algorithm for a CubeSat whose primary mission is stellar observation. The main sources of pointing errors are environmental input disturbances, which must be attenuated to achieve precise pointing. The frequency characteristics of these disturbances were analyzed, and a relationship was established to estimate the resulting pointing error. By employing H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</inf> control, the disturbance properties are directly incorporated into the control problem formulation, resulting in a simplified controller tuning process. The designed controller was verified through linear analysis. Software-in-the-loop simulations using a high-fidelity simulator confirmed the results of the linear analysis. Additionally, a Monte Carlo simulation campaign, accounting for parametric uncertainties, was conducted and further validated the results.