Attitude Control Simulation
Simulation of a spacecraft attitude control system using nonlinear rigid body dynamics and closed loop attitude tracking control.
Overview
The simulation demonstrates spacecraft attitude control through three pointing modes:
- Sun Pointing
- Nadir Pointing
- Communication Pointing (with a higher orbit satellite)
Key Features
- Modified Rodrigues Parameters (MRP) and quaternion attitude representations
- Nonlinear rigid body rotational dynamics
- PD attitude tracking controller
- Autonomous switching between pointing modes
- Numerical integration of the attitude dynamics
Control
A proportional-derivative (PD) controller tracks the commanded attitude. The controller uses attitude error and angular velocity error to calculate the control torque.
Visualization
The simulation displays spacecraft orientation, reference directions, and changes in pointing mode over time.
Future Work
- Reaction wheel actuator model
- Sensor noise and attitude estimation
- External disturbance torques