Spacecraft Magnetic Control Using Dichotomous Coordinate Descent Algorithm with Box Constraints

In this paper we present magnetic control of a spacecraft using the Dichotomous Coordinate Descent (DCD) algorithm with box constraints. What is common for most work on magnetic spacecraft control is the technique for solving for the control variables of the magnetic torquers where a cross product is included which is well known to be singular. The DCD algorithm provides a new scheme which makes it possible to use a general control law and then adapt it to work for magnetic torquers including restrictions in available magnetic moment, instead of designing a specialized controller for the magnetic control problem. A non-linear passivity-based sliding surface controller is derived for a fully actuated spacecraft and is then implemented for magnetic control by utilizing the previous mentioned algorithm. Results from two simulations are provided, the first comparing the results from the DCD algorithm with older results, and the second showing how easily the derived sliding surface controller may be implemented, improving our results.