Comparative Synthesis of Linear and Nonlinear Attitude Controllers for LEO Satellite at Stabilization Mode

Recently, there is increasing interest in satellite activities and applications which require accurate pointing of the satellite attitude and the attached payload. Therefore, attitude determination and control system is required to accomplish autonomously the required missions. This attitude control system consists of algorithms and some equipment, e.g., sensors and actuators. In this work, we design an attitude controller to stabilize the attitude of low Earth orbit satellites. First, we present the mathematical models for the dynamics and kinematics of the underlying satellite. Afterwards, we outline the designing process of the proposed attitude controllers, e.g., linear quadratic regulator and sliding mode, to stabilize the satellite attitude despite external disturbances. Numerical simulations are performed to compare the controllers’ performance according to pointing accuracy, steady-state error, and disturbances damping. The simulation results demonstrate and validate the controllers’ performance and effectiveness. As the satellite mission depends mainly on the controllers’ performance.