Maneuvering and vibration control of flexible spacecraft

This paper is concerned with the problem of slewing a large structure in space and suppressing any vibration at the same time. The structure is assumed to undergo large rigid-body motions and small elastic deformations. A perturbation method permits a maneuver strategy independent of the vibration control. Optimal control and pole placement techniques, formulated to include first-order actuator dynamics, are used to suppress the vibration during maneuver. The theory is illustrated by simultaneous maneuvering and vibration control of the Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) model in a space environment.