Robust Model Predictive Control for Satellite Orbit Maintenance Using Hall Effect Thrusters

In this article, a robust model predictive controller is designed for maintaining the satellite's low earth orbit in the presence of perturbations and uncertainties. The designed control system makes it possible for the satellite to automatically keep the orbital parameters within the allowed range without intervention of the ground station. For this purpose, Hall effect thrusters, which are among the electric thrusters with small size, have been used, and the output of the controller is implemented by continuously commanding these thrusters instead of the traditional impulsive thrust generation algorithms. Based on this, it is possible to modify all orbital parameters simultaneously. In the presented solution, the gain of the controller is calculated online by solving an optimization problem whose objective is to minimize the orbit maintenance error and also the fuel consumption. Also, the optimization problem based on linear matrix inequalities has been developed to ensure the stability of the closed loop system and to be robust against orbital perturbations and unknown parametric uncertainties. Finally, numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme and the high efficiency of the closed loop system despite uncertainties and perturbations.