A Review on Underactuated Attitude Control of Reaction Wheel Actuated Satellites

The attitude determination and control subsystem is a vital satellite subsystem that provides maneuvering and pointing. According to statistics, more than half of the launched small satellites use the reaction wheel as the principal executive mechanism to complete the attitude maneuvering task. The underactuated technical term describes systems with fewer actuators than the degrees of freedom. Construction constraints and actuator failures can result in an underactuated system. Underactuation of a satellite under operating conditions can reduce its in-orbit performance and cause mission failure. This paper first introduces an underactuated satellite and reviews satellite attitude control methods in healthy conditions. The following presents fault-tolerant control and various mechanisms for identifying underactuated conditions. Model-based methods effectively diagnose underactuated conditions as they align well with fault compensation control techniques and perform efficiently across all satellite operating conditions. Also, most of the works are focused on the observer. In addition, methods used to stabilize and control an underactuated satellite using a reaction wheel actuator are investigated. Finally, attitude tracking control in underactuated conditions is presented.