Model predictive control for spin-up maneuver of an electrodynamic tether system.

This paper focuses on the nonlinear dynamics and control for the spin-up maneuver of an electrodynamic tethered satellite system in an inclined elliptical orbit. A nonsingular formulation is established by using a unit vector along the tether to define the tether orientation and avoid the Euler angle singularity, and is adopted to describe the attitude dynamics of the system and to facilitate the controller design. The spin-up problem of concern is to accelerate the electrodynamic tether system into the prescribed spinning motions and maintain the expected angular velocity. A nonlinear model predictive control law accounting for nonlinear dynamics and system constraints is proposed to achieve this control goal by actively regulating the changing rate of the bounded tether current. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control law for the spin-up maneuver and evaluate the control performance. Meanwhile, comparative studies are presented to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed control law in stabilizing the out-of-plane libration motions of the system in inclined orbits. • A nonsingular formulation is developed for an EDT system in elliptical orbits. • Nonlinear dynamics and inherent constraints of the system are accounted for. • Model predictive control law is proposed for spin-up maneuver of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]