Controllability of Spacecraft Using Only Magnetic Torques

TL;DR

This paper establishes the controllability conditions for spacecraft attitude control systems that use only magnetic torques, a crucial step for designing effective control strategies.

Contribution

It derives the necessary and sufficient conditions for controllability of linear time-varying spacecraft systems using magnetic torques, filling a key gap in the field.

Findings

Controllability conditions depend on spacecraft and magnetic field parameters.

The results enable better design of control laws for magnetic torque systems.

Provides theoretical foundation for future control strategy development.

Abstract

Spacecraft attitude control using only magnetic torques is a time-varying system. Many designs were proposed using LQR and H-infinity formulations. The existence of the solutions depends on the controllability of the linear time-varying systems which has not been established. In this paper, we will derive the conditions of the controllability for this linear time-varying systems.