A novel body frame based approach to aerospacecraft attitude tracking

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Control Systems
• Robotics

Background:

• Traditional attitude tracker design relies on inertial frame metrics (Euler angles, quaternions), often involving complex, singularity-prone transformations.
• Lyapunov-based control design for attitude tracking can be complicated by these coordinate transformations.
• Existing methods face challenges in simplifying analysis and controller synthesis due to singularities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel, singularity-free error feedback method for attitude tracker design.
• To simplify stability analysis and controller synthesis for aerospacecraft attitude control.
• To demonstrate global tracking convergence using various control strategies and validate on a quadrotor.

Main Methods:

• Developed a body frame-based error feedback method utilizing Euler axis and angles.
• Eliminated the need for coordinate transformations, avoiding singularity issues.
• Implemented and tested feedback linearizing PD, sliding mode, and adaptive controllers for global convergence demonstration.

Main Results:

• The proposed singularity-free method simplifies attitude tracker analysis and controller design.
• Global tracking convergence was successfully illustrated across multiple control algorithms.
• Experimental validation on a quadrotor platform with unknown parameters and disturbances showed significant tracking quality.

Conclusions:

• The body frame-based, singularity-free approach offers a more intuitive and robust solution for attitude tracking.
• This method effectively handles complex dynamics and external disturbances in aerospacecraft control.
• The findings pave the way for improved attitude control systems in aerospace and robotics applications.