Sliding Mode Attitude Control for Momentum-Biased Spacecraft

In this paper, we present a sliding mode control strategy for the re-orientation maneuver of rigid spacecraft containing rotating wheels. The wheels are considered as internal devices, and external inputs are employed for generation of control commands. The formulation is developed for a general case while particular example is applied to pitch bias momentum spacecraft with a single momentum wheel. The resultant control commands are used to take the gyroscopic effects into account which are caused by the rotating wheels. The controller designed demonstrates that the nutational motion of the pitch bias momentum spacecraft is effectively controlled. It is also assumed that the external control torque device is of on-off nature, and pulse width modulation technique is applied to construct proper control torque history.