Control strategy of optimal deployment for spacecraft solar array system with initial state uncertainty

A control strategy combining feedforward control and feedback control is presented for the optimal deployment of a spacecraft solar array system with the initial state uncertainty. A dynamic equation of the spacecraft solar array system is established under the assumption that the initial linear momentum and angular momentum of the system are zero. In the design of feedforward control, the dissipation energy of each revolute joint is selected as the performance index of the system. A Legendre pseudospectral method (LPM) is used to transform the optimal control problem into a nonlinear programming problem. Then, a sequential quadratic programming algorithm is used to solve the nonlinear programming problem and offline generate the optimal reference trajectory of the system. In the design of feedback control, the dynamic equation is linearized along the reference trajectory in the presence of initial state errors. A trajectory tracking problem is converted to a two-point boundary value problem based on Pontryagin’s minimum principle. The LPM is used to discretize the two-point boundary value problem and transform it into a set of linear algebraic equations which can be easily calculated. Then, the closed-loop state feedback control law is designed based on the resulting optimal feedback control and achieves good performance in real time. Numerical simulations demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.