A study of PID and L1 adaptive control for automatic balancing of a spacecraft three-axis simulator

Abstract

Purpose

The three-axis simulator relies on the air film between the air bearing and the bearing seat to achieve weightlessness and the frictionless motion condition, which is essential for simulating the micro-disturbance torque of a satellite in outer space. However, at the beginning of the experiment, the disturbance torque caused by the misalignment between the center of gravity of the simulator and the center of rotation of the bearing is the most important factor restricting the use of the space three-axis simulator. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to set the balance adjustment system on the simulator to compensate the disturbance torque caused by the eccentricity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, a study of L1 adaptive automatic balancing control method for micro satellite with motor without other actuators is proposed. L1 adaptive control algorithm adds the low-pass filter to the control law, which in a certain sense to reduce the high-frequency signal and speed up the response time of the controlled system. At the same time, by estimating the adaptive parameter uncertainty in object, the output error of the state predictor and the controlled object can be stabilized under Lyapunov condition, and the robustness of the system is also improved. The automatic balancing method of PID is also studied in this paper.

Findings

Through this automatic balancing mechanism, the gravity disturbance torque can be effectively reduced down to 10⁻⁶ Nm, and the automatic balancing time can be controlled within 7 s.

Originality/value

This paper introduces an automatic balancing mechanism. The experimental results show that the mechanism can greatly improve the convergence speed while guaranteeing the control accuracy, and ensuring the feasibility of the large angle maneuver of spacecraft three-axis simulator.

Citation

Hua, B., Chen, L., Wu, Y. and Chen, Z. (2018), "A study of PID and L1 adaptive control for automatic balancing of a spacecraft three-axis simulator", International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 269-284. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJICC-07-2017-0084