Modeling and robust H-infinite control of a novel non-contact ultra-quiet Stewart spacecraft.

This paper presents the modeling and robust H ∞ control of a novel ultra-quiet spacecraft which employs the non-contact Stewart platform to actively control its support module (SM) and payload module (PM). The SM and PM are mechanically separated such that the disturbances and vibrations from the SM can be perfectly suppressed. However, this novel spacecraft has internal instability. To overcome the instability, this paper derives the dynamics model of the non-contact Stewart spacecraft using Newton–Euler approach at first. Then, the mixed sensitivity robust H ∞ control is developed to guarantee both the attitude stability and precision pointing. Finally, simulation studies are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]