Roto-Translational Control of Spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit Using Environmental Forces and Torques

In this paper, relative orbit and attitude adaptive controllers are integrated to perform roto-translational maneuvers for CubeSats equipped with a Drag Maneuvering Device (DMD). The DMD enables the host CubeSat with modulation of aerodynamic forces/torques and gravity gradient torque. Adaptive controllers for independent orbital and attitude maneuvers are revisited to account for traslational-attitude coupling while compensating for uncertainty in parameters such as atmospheric density, drag/lift coefficients, location of the Center of Mass (CoM) and inertia matrix. Uniformly ultimately bounded convergence of the attitude error and relative orbit states is guaranteed by Lyapunov-based stability analysis for the integrated roto-translational maneuver. A simulation example of an along-track formation maneuver between two CubeSats with simultaneous attitude control using only environmental forces and torques is presented to validate the controller.