Attitude Determination and

Control of Satellites

Introduction
Attitude Determination and Control
Subsystem(ADCS)
- Senses the orientation of spacecraft
relative to reference plane usually inertial
- Stabillizes the spacecraft
- Orients the spacecraft in desired
direction

Attitude control
Needed because
Payload requirements
Eg. Focusing the satellite camera to a particular
direction
Communication requirements
Pointing the antenna towards ground
Power system requirements
Tracking the sun to achieve maximum power
generation

Components of ADCS
Sensors- To determine the orientation of the
satellite
Algorithms-To calculate the deviation from the
desired orientation and to generate actuation
command to counter the deviation
Actuators-To act upon the signals given by the
control algorithms and to produce the
necessary torques

CHANGE IN ATTITUDE
Satellite tends to change its orientation because
of environmental torques
Aerodynamic torque
Solar radiation pressure
Gravity gradient torque
Interaction of Satellite electronics with earths
magnetic field

Attitude Determination
Earth Sensor (horizon sensor)

Use IR to detect boundary between deep space & upper

atmosphere
Typically scanning (can also be an actuator)

Sun Sensor
Star Sensor

Scanner: for spinning S/C or on a rotating mount

Tracker/Mapper: for 3-axis stabilized S/C
Tracker (one star) / Mapper (multiple stars)

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)

Rate Gyros (may also include accelerometers)

Magnetometer

Requires magnetic field model stored in computer

Attitude Control
Actuators come in two types
Passive
Gravity Gradient Boom
Spinning

Active

Thrusters
Wheels
Gyros
Torque Rods

Reference frames
Earth Centered Inertial Frame: Non rotating
reference frame denoted by .
Origin : Center of Earth
x axis : Points towards vernal equinox
y axis: 90 east in the equatorial plane
z - axis: Extends through North pole

 Earth-Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF) Frame:

x and y axes rotate with the hemisphere relative
to ECI frame
origin: center of earth
x-axis: Points toward the intersection of
Greenwich meridian and equator
z-axis: Extends through the North pole and
rotation is about z axis
y-axis: Completes right handed system.

 Orbit Frame:
Origin: Center of mass of the satellite
x-axis: Points in the direction of motion
tangentially to the orbit
z-axis: Points Nadhir (center of Earth)
y-axis: Completes right handed system

 Body frame:
Origin: Coincides with the center of mass of
the satellite.
x and y axes: Coincides with the orbit frame
axes when the satellite has an attitude of 0 in
roll, pitch and yaw.
z-axis: Nadhir side of satellite

Rotation Matrix
Rotation matrix is a description of the rotational
relationship between two reference frame.
The rotation matrix R from frame a to b is
denoted as R.
Rotation of a vector from one frame to another
frame be given using R as

 Rotational matrices are denoted by SO(3)

The orientation of satellite is described using

rotation matrix

Relation between angular velocity and rotation

matrix, and its derivative is

 Attitude Representation:
Most widely used methods:
-Euler angles
-Unit Quaternions
Euler Angles:
-Uses roll (), pitch (), yaw ()

 Transforming the body from the inertial axes

to rotated body fixed axes using a rotation
matrix:

Where I, j, k are chosen rotation axes and

are transposes of the elementary
rotation matrices about their respective axes.

 Unit Quaternions:
-Choose euler axis
- Rotate the object by an angle from inertial
frame about the euler axis.

Inertia Matrix
Inertia matix I

about origin is defined as

Dynamics of Satellite
Consider satellite as rigid body
h=rxp
h= I
Where
h angular momentum
r position vector
p linear momentum
I moment of inertia
angular velocity

Mathematical dynamic model of satellite:

: angular velocity of the body frame with

respect to the inertial frame in the body frame
: Torques acting on the satellite in body
frame both internal and external.

Modeling of Reaction wheel

Torque produced by reaction wheel:

: Torque produced by reaction wheel in

body frame
is angular momentum of
reaction wheels
is friction of reaction wheel

Mathematical Model of spacecraft

Attitude System
- (1)
- (2)
- (3)
where
is attitude angular velocity expresses
in spacecrafts body fixed reference frame to
inertial frame
: rotation inertial matrix
: angular momentum of spacecraft

is attitude angles described by

Euler angles and

References
LI Long, Hou Jianwen. Adaptive Sliding Mode
Based Controller Design for Spacecraft
Attitude Stabilization, IEEE transactions, 2015
Attitude determination and control by James R
Wertz
Spacecraft Dynamics and Control by Marcel J.
SIDI,1997