SNS406 Spacecraft

Attitude Dynamics and

Control
Lec 3: ADCS Equ.

Dr Mohamed Elfarran

DrMohamed
Dr MohamedElfarranElfarran
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TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

GOVERNING EQUATIONS

What equations describe the spacecraft attitude?

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Key Concept: Angular Momentum

Fundamental quantity in rotational dynamics.

Moment of the linear momentum about a defined origin

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑛 𝑛

𝐻 = ෍ 𝐻𝑖 = ෍ 𝑟Ԧ𝑖 × 𝑚𝑖 𝑣Ԧ𝑖
𝑖=1 𝑖=1

The angular momentum of a particle referred to an inertially fixed point is only

changed if the forces on it have a moment M about this fixed point.

𝑑𝐻
=𝑇
𝑑𝑡

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Key Concept: Angular Momentum

In the absence of an external torque, the angular momentum is preserved.

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

What happens to the angular

momentum when the spacecraft
deploys its solar panels?

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Time Differentiation in a Rotating Frame
z

𝜌Ԧ Rotating body frame

w v (angular velocity ω)
𝑟Ԧ
u
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑅 y

x 𝑟𝑖 =𝑅+𝜌𝑖

𝑑𝑟𝑖 𝑑𝑅 𝑑𝜌𝑖
𝑣𝑖 = = + 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 + 𝜔 × 𝜌Ԧ𝑖
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

𝑑2 𝑅 𝑑 2 𝜌𝑖 𝑑𝜌𝑖 𝑑𝜔
𝑎𝑖 = + + 2𝜔 × + × 𝜌Ԧ𝑖 + 𝜔 × 𝜔 × 𝜌Ԧ𝑖
𝑑𝑡 2 𝑑𝑡 2 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑡
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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Total Angular Momentum
𝑛 𝑛 𝑑𝑟𝑖 𝑑𝑅
𝐻𝑡 = ෍ 𝐻𝑖 = ෍ 𝑟Ԧ𝑖 × 𝑚𝑖 𝑣Ԧ𝑖 𝑟𝑖 =𝑅+𝜌𝑖 𝑣𝑖 = = + 𝜔 × 𝜌Ԧ𝑖
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑖=1 𝑖=1
𝑑𝜌𝑖
𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 = 0 [𝑅𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑑 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑦]
𝑑𝑡
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Rotating frame at the

center of mass

𝑛 𝑛
𝑑𝑅
𝐻𝑡 = ෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝑅 × + ෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝜌Ԧ𝑖 × 𝜔 × 𝜌𝑖
𝑑𝑡
𝑖=1 𝑖=1

𝑎Ԧ × 𝑏 × 𝑐Ԧ =
𝑛 𝑏 𝑎.
Ԧ 𝑐Ԧ − 𝑐Ԧ 𝑎.
Ԧ 𝑏 =
Ԧ
𝐼Ԧ = ෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝜌𝑖2 𝐸3 − 𝜌Ԧ𝑖 𝜌Ԧ𝑖
𝑏 𝑎. Ԧ 𝑎Ԧ 𝑇 = 𝑏 𝐸3 𝑎. 𝑐Ԧ − 𝑐.
Ԧ 𝑐Ԧ − 𝑏 𝑐. Ԧ 𝑎Ԧ 𝑇
𝑖=1

𝑛
ԦԦ
𝐻𝑡 = ෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝑅 × 𝑉 + 𝐼𝜔
𝑖=1 6
Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Total Angular Momentum
𝑛
ԦԦ
𝐻𝑡 = ෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝑅 × 𝑉 + 𝐼𝜔
𝑖=1
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝐻𝑠/𝑐

The angular momentum is equivalent to the linear momentum for rotational dynamics
(m  I, v  ω)

For a rigid spacecraft, the spin angular momentum can be decoupled from the orbital
angular momentum.

Choose principal axes of inertia! In practice, asymmetries and misalignments lead to

coupling, which leads to unwanted disturbances to be removed by the control system

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
External Torques
A force applied to the spacecraft produces a torque
𝑇𝑖 = 𝜌𝑖 × 𝐹𝑖 about the center of mass

𝑛 𝑛
𝑑 2 𝑟𝑖
𝑇𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑇 = ෍ 𝜌𝑖 × 𝐹𝑖 = ෍ 𝜌𝑖 × 𝑚𝑖 2
𝑑𝑡
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑖=1 𝑖=1

𝑑2 𝑅 𝑑 2 𝜌𝑖 𝑑𝜌𝑖 𝑑𝜔
𝑎𝑖 = + + 2𝜔 × + × 𝜌Ԧ𝑖 + 𝜔 × 𝜔 × 𝜌Ԧ𝑖
𝑑𝑡 2 𝑑𝑡 2 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑡

ԦԦ
𝐻𝑠/𝑐 = 𝐼𝜔

𝑑𝐻 𝑑𝐻𝑠/𝑐 ԦԦ 𝑑𝜔 ԦԦ
𝑇= = + 𝜔 × 𝐻𝑠/𝑐 =𝐼 + 𝜔 × 𝐼𝜔
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦
Fundamental equation for attitude dynamics
Dr Mohamed Elfarran (Newton’s second law for rotating rigid bodies) 8
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Equation Governing Attitude Dynamics

ԦԦ 𝑑𝜔 ԦԦ
𝑇  𝜔 𝑇=𝐼 + 𝜔 × 𝐼𝜔
𝑑𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦
Gyroscopic
coupling
Principal axes

𝐻ሶ 𝑥 = 𝐼𝑥 𝜔ሶ 𝑥 = 𝑇𝑥 + 𝐼𝑦 − 𝐼𝑧 𝜔𝑦 𝜔𝑧
𝐻ሶ 𝑦 = 𝐼𝑦 𝜔ሶ 𝑦 = 𝑇𝑦 + 𝐼𝑧 − 𝐼𝑥 𝜔𝑥 𝜔𝑧
𝐻ሶ 𝑧 = 𝐼𝑧 𝜔ሶ 𝑧 = 𝑇𝑧 + 𝐼𝑥 − 𝐼𝑦 𝜔𝑥 𝜔𝑦

Nonlinear equations with no general solution 

computer simulations
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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Simplification

For quick calculations, we may choose to simplify and make our life easier:

𝑇𝑥 ≈ 𝐼𝑥 𝜔ሶ 𝑥 = 𝐼𝑥 𝛼𝑥
𝑇𝑦 ≈ 𝐼𝑦 𝜔ሶ 𝑦 = 𝐼𝑦 𝛼𝑦
𝑇𝑧 ≈ 𝐼𝑧 𝜔ሶ 𝑧 = 𝐼𝑧 𝛼𝑧

If the gyroscopic effect becomes more important, this gets less accurate!

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Spinning Rigid Spacecraft
𝜔𝑥 , 𝜔𝑦 ≪ 𝜔𝑧 = Ω
𝐼𝑥 𝜔ሶ 𝑥 = 𝑇𝑥 + 𝐼𝑦 − 𝐼𝑧 𝜔𝑦 𝜔𝑧 𝐼𝑦 − 𝐼𝑧
𝜔ሶ 𝑥 = Ω𝜔𝑦
𝐼𝑦 𝜔ሶ 𝑦 = 𝑇𝑦 + 𝐼𝑧 − 𝐼𝑥 𝜔𝑥 𝜔𝑧 𝐼𝑥
Free 𝐼𝑧 − 𝐼𝑥
𝐼𝑧 𝜔ሶ 𝑧 = 𝑇𝑧 + 𝐼𝑥 − 𝐼𝑦 𝜔𝑥 𝜔𝑦 response 𝜔ሶ 𝑦 = Ω𝜔𝑥
𝐼𝑦
𝜔ሶ 𝑧 = 0

𝜔𝑥 = 𝑓1 𝜔𝑛 𝑡
𝜔𝑦 = 𝑓2 𝜔𝑛 𝑡
𝐼𝑧 −𝐼𝑦 𝐼𝑧 −𝐼𝑥
Nutation frequency 𝜔𝑛2 = Ω2
𝐼𝑥 𝐼𝑦

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Spinning Rigid Spacecraft

What happens if the spin axis inertia Iz is intermediate between Ix and Iy ?

The nutation frequency is imaginary. Any perturbing torque will result

in the growth of the nutation angle until the body is spinning about
either the maximum or minimum inertia axis, depending on initial
condition.

A rigid body can rotate about its extreme inertia axis,

but not the intermediate axis

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Spinning Rigid Spacecraft

What happens if the spin axis inertia Iz is intermediate between Ix and Iy ?

𝐼1 > 𝐼2 > 𝐼3

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 OVERVIEW

• Introduction

• Rationale

• Attitude Requirements and Errors

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

• Governing Equations

• Attitude Parameterization

• Disturbance Torques

• Passive Control

• Active Control

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TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION

How do we describe the attitude of a spacecraft?

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 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Introduction

The attitude – or orientation – of the spacecraft needs to be described in an

unambiguous way. There are several ways of doing this:

• Direction Cosine Matrix

• Euler Angles
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

• Quaternion
• Others that will not be described here.

Each of these has its advantages and disadvantages and are used for different reasons.

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Direction Cosine Matrix

Assume an orthogonal, right handed triad of unit vectors.

(E.g. the body frame of a spacecraft.)

Specifying the components of these unit vectors in the coordinate frame 1-2-3 fixes the
orientation completely.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑢1 𝑢2 𝑢3
𝐴 = 𝑣1 𝑣2 𝑣3
𝑤1 𝑤2 𝑤3
3
v u

w 2

1
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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Direction Cosine Matrix

𝑢1 𝑢2 𝑢3
𝐴 = 𝑣1 𝑣2 𝑣3
𝑤1 𝑤2 𝑤3
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Each of the elements of the matrix corresponds with the cosine of the angle between a body
unit vector and a reference axis. E.g. u1 is the cosine of the angle between u and the 1-axis.

A is therefore often called the Direction Cosine Matrix.

The Direction Cosine Matrix maps vectors from the reference frame to the body frame.

𝑎𝑢 𝑢1 𝑢2 𝑢3 𝑎1
𝑎𝑣 = 𝑣1 𝑣2 𝑣3 𝑎2
𝑎𝑤 𝑤1 𝑤2 𝑤3 𝑎3
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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Euler Angles

Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer,

logician and engineer, who published
around 800 pages per year.

He produced, on average, one

mathematical paper every week in the
year 1775, while being almost blind.

By Jakob Emanuel Handmann - Kunstmuseum Basel, Public Domain,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=893656 19
Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Euler Angles

To define the Euler Angles, consider four orthogonal, right handed triads of unit vectors:
𝑥 𝑦 𝑧
𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′
𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧"
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑢 𝑣 𝑤

3 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 is parallel to the reference frame axes.

z
y
x
2

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Euler Angles

To define the Euler Angles, consider four orthogonal, right handed triads of unit vectors:
𝑥 𝑦 𝑧
𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′
𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧"
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑢 𝑣 𝑤

3 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 is parallel to the reference frame axes.

zz’ 𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′ is rotated as opposed to 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 with
an angle Φ around an axis i (let’s assume the z-axis).
x’ x y’ y
2

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Euler Angles

To define the Euler Angles, consider four orthogonal, right handed triads of unit vectors:
𝑥 𝑦 𝑧
𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′
𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧"
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑢 𝑣 𝑤

3 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 is parallel to the reference frame axes.

z’ 𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′ is rotated as opposed to 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 with
z” y” an angle Φ around an axis i (let’s assume the z-axis).
x’ y’ 𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧" is rotated as opposed to 𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′ with
x” 2 an angle θ around an axis j (let’s assume the x-axis).

j cannot be equal to i, otherwise we are just rotating

1 further or back from the previous step.

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Euler Angles

To define the Euler Angles, consider four orthogonal, right handed triads of unit vectors:
𝑥 𝑦 𝑧
𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′
𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧"
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝑢 𝑣 𝑤

3 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 is parallel to the reference frame axes.

𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′ is rotated as opposed to 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 with
w
z” y” v an angle Φ around an axis i (let’s assume the z-axis).
𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧" is rotated as opposed to 𝑥′ 𝑦′ 𝑧′ with
x”u an angle θ around an axis j (let’s assume the x’-axis).
2
𝑢 𝑣 𝑤 is rotated as opposed to 𝑥" 𝑦" 𝑧" with
an angle ψ around an axis k (let’s assume the z”-axis).
1

k cannot be equal to j, otherwise we are just rotating

Dr Mohamed Elfarran further or back from the previous step. 23
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Euler Angles

The three rotation angles (Φ, θ, ψ), together with the axis order (3-1-3 in this case), define the
attitude.

There are 12 different axis sequences:

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

313, 212, 121, 323, 232, 131, 312, 213, 123, 321, 231, 132

It is of course possible to convert Euler Angles to a Direction Cosine Matrix.

e.g. for a 313 sequence

𝐴313 Φ, θ, ψ =

𝐴3 Φ 𝐴1 θ 𝐴3 ψ =

cos ψ cos Φ − cos θ sin ψ sin Φ cos ψ sin Φ + cos θ sin ψ cos Φ sin θ sin ψ
− sin ψ cos Φ − cos θ cos ψ sin Φ − sin ψ sin Φ + cos θ cos ψ cos Φ sin θ cos ψ
sin θ sin Φ − sin θ cos Φ cos θ
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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Quaternions
Sir William Rowan Hamilton knew that complex numbers could be interpreted as points in
a plane, and he was looking for a way to do the same for points in three-dimensional space.

As he walked along the towpath of the Royal Canal with his wife, the concepts behind
quaternions were taking shape in his mind. When the answer dawned on him, Hamilton could
not resist the urge to carve the formula for the quaternions. [1]

By Cone83 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64867702

By Wisher at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by

Premeditated Chaos using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, 25
Dr Mohamed Elfarran
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18674771
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Quaternions
Any rotation or sequence of rotations of a rigid body or coordinate system about a fixed point
is equivalent to a single rotation by a given angle θ about a fixed axis (called the Euler axis) that
runs through the fixed point.[1]

u
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

θ θ θ
𝑞= 𝑒 2(𝑢𝑥 𝑖+𝑢𝑦𝑗+𝑢𝑧𝑘) = cos + (𝑢𝑥 𝑖 + 𝑢𝑦 𝑗 + 𝑢𝑧 𝑘) sin
2 2

𝑞𝑤
Scalar part
𝑞
𝑞 = 𝑞𝑥
𝑦 Vector part
𝑞𝑧
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Dr Mohamed Elfarran [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternions_and_spatial_rotation
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Quaternions
A quaternion can again be converted to a Direction Cosine Matrix.

𝑞𝑥2 − 𝑞𝑦2 − 𝑞𝑧2 + 𝑞𝑤

2 2(𝑞𝑥 𝑞𝑦 + 𝑞𝑧 𝑞𝑤 ) 2(𝑞𝑥 𝑞𝑧 − 𝑞𝑦 𝑞𝑤 )
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

𝐴 𝑞 = 2(𝑞𝑧 𝑞𝑦 − 𝑞𝑧 𝑞𝑤 ) −𝑞𝑥𝑤 + 𝑞𝑦2 − 𝑞𝑧2 + 𝑞𝑤

2 2(𝑞𝑦 𝑞𝑧 + 𝑞𝑥 𝑞𝑤 )
2(𝑞𝑥 𝑞𝑧 + 𝑞𝑦 𝑞𝑤 ) 2(𝑞𝑦 𝑞𝑧 − 𝑞𝑥 𝑞𝑤 ) − 𝑞𝑥2 − 𝑞𝑦2 + 𝑞𝑧2 + 𝑞𝑤
2

There are no trigonometric functions in this equation.

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Dr Mohamed Elfarran
 ATTITUDE PARAMETERIZATION
Overview

Parameterization Advantages Disadvantages Common

Applications
• No Singularities • Six redundant In analysis, to transform
• No trigonometric parameters vectors from one
Direction Cosine
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

functions reference frame to

Matrix • Convenient product rule another
for successive rotations
• No redundant parameters • Trigonometric Analytical studies and as
• Physical interpretation is functions input/output for human
clear in some cases • Singularity possible manipulation
Euler Angles • No convenient
product rule for
successive rotations
• No singularities • One redundant • Onboard the
• No trigonometric parameter spacecraft, in the
Quaternion functions • No obvious physical control laws.
• Convenient product rule interpretation
for successive rotations

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Assignment 3