Attitude control for part actuator failure of agile small satellite

The stability and singularity problem of agile small satellite (ASS) with actuator failure is discussed in this paper. Firstly, the three-axis stabilized controller of an ASS is designed, where micro control moment gyros (MCMG’s) in pyramid configuration (PC) is used as the actuator. By using the same controller and steering law, the control results before and after one gyro fails are compared by simulation. The variation of singular momentum envelope before and after one gyro fails is also compared. The simulation results show that the failure intensively decreases the capacity of output torque, which leads to the emergence of more singular points and the rapid saturation of MCMG’s. Finally, the parameters of system controller are changed to compare the control effect. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10502006) and Excellent Young Scholars Research Fund of Beijing Institute of Technology (2007YS0202).