Observer-based prescribed performance attitude control for flexible spacecraft with actuator saturation

This paper investigates the prescribed performance attitude control problem for flexible spacecraft subject to external disturbances and actuator constraints. By using a new performance function and an error transformation, the attitude control system is transformed into an error system which will be kept bounded to ensure expected dynamic and steady-state responses. Compared with the commonly used performance function, the modified one has an explicit prespecified terminal time which determines the maximum convergence time of the attitude control system. A modal observer and a disturbance observer are designed to deal with the flexible vibration and disturbances, respectively. Furthermore, when considering actuator saturation, an improved control strategy is developed with an auxiliary system utilized to compensate the saturation. The stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed by Lyapunov theory. Simulation results show the effectiveness and performance of the proposed methods.