Satellite 3Axis Attitude Control Using the Combination of Reaction Wheels and Thrusters

In this paper, the combination of reaction wheels and thrusters is applied to attitude control of a satellite. First, governing equations of satellite attitude dynamics are given using quaternion and PID controller is designed based on the satellite quaternion to determine the applied control torque. By applying the reaction wheels physical constraints such as its maximum torque, its maximum momentum and maximum power on the desired torque, reaction wheels angular momentums and torques are found. The obtained results show that the unsaturated reaction wheels capabilities in attitude control. Results also show that the wheels saturation leads to error in control and increases the Euler angles and quaternions. Satellite thrusters are utilized to reaction wheels de-saturation and attitude control simultaneously. Three different strategies are proposed in this paper for wheels de-saturation using thrusters. Two well known methods, pulse width modulator (PWM) and pulse width pulse frequency (PWPF) modulator are used to attitude control using thrusters. All methods are compared together and the optimal method is proposed for the satellite attitude control. This paper results can be useful in design and control of different class of satellites.