Global exponential attitude tracking for spacecraft with gyro bias estimation

Relying on contraction analysis, this paper addresses the global attitude tracking problem of a spacecraft when angular velocity measurements are corrupted by bias. A nonlinear observer with exponential convergence is designed firstly to estimate the bias in gyro sensors. Then an exponentially convergent attitude tracking controller with gyro bias correction is devised. Next, to remove the topological constraints of unit quaternions for global stability, a switching variable with hysteresis is incorporated in the control loop, enhancing the robustness in the presence of measurement noise and energy efficiency by preventing the unwinding phenomenon. Numeric simulations are shown to illustrate the performance and compare with other similar controllers in terms of tracking error, estimation error and energy efficiency, as well as the robustness to noisy measurements and time-varying bias in gyro sensors.