Geostationary Station Keeping Using Relative Orbital Elements with Model Predictive Control

In this paper, we consider the model predictive control (MPC) design for the geostationary (GEO) satellite in achieving the station keeping. We first introduce the GEO satellite orbit system with perturbation, for which the control framework through MPC strategy is constructed. Then, a relative orbital elements model is presented to characterize the specific properties of the GEO satellite. It is shown that by resorting to the relative orbital elements, the station keeping problem can be disposed by solving an optimization problem. Note that compared with the traditional station keeping methods, MPC strategy is flexible in control decision making, and it could handle a certain of constraints. In this paper, control constraints are considered to satisfy the maximum thrust force of the satellite. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy in solving the GEO satellite station keeping problem.