Compound control for multi-axis pointing of flexible satellites

The multi-body satellite with flexible solar panels and an antenna was taken as practical background. A multi-axis pointing compound control scheme was designed based on the dynamic model of the multi-body satellite. The rotation information of the antenna was used and forward and variable structure scheme was designed to control the centre body, and the antenna pointing was decided by the attitude of the satellite body to achieve centre body and antenna multi-axis pointing control goal. The control scheme is simple to be carried out in practice. Numerical simulation indicates that the compound control scheme is effective. The precision of the satellite centre body is 3 × 10-3 deg and the antenna is 0.1 deg. Compared with the un-compound control, the compound control can improve the precision of the multi-axis pointing system.