Ricerc@Sapienza

A novel approach has been proposed for planning time-optimal maneuvers imposing a bang–bang external control. The optimizer was based on the particle swarm optimization and only required setting the maximum number of switches allowed for each axis. Two different test cases were analyzed and solved to validate the optimizer. In the first example, characterized by four state-space variables and no path constraints, the convergence toward the optimal solution has been demonstrated with different values of the maximum number of switches.

This paper proposes a computationally efficient attitude control strategy for nanospacecraft fast reorientation maneuvers. The paper considers a 3U CubeSat for visual Earth observation missions with deployable solar panels, equipped with three reaction wheels, three magnetorquers, and a miniature star imager, due to a 0.1° stringent targeting requirement of the payload. The star imager is very accurate, but operational only at very small angular rates. Hence it cannot be used for attitude measurement during fast slewing maneuvers.