Azimuth Control of Near-Space Balloon-Borne Gondola Based on Simplified Decoupling Mechanism and Reaction Wheel

During the suspension flight of high-altitude scientific balloons in near-space, they are highly vulnerable to time-varying wind field disturbances, which tend to excite multiple distinctive torsional modes of the balloons themselves, thereby interfering with the observations of balloon-borne equipment. Focusing on the azimuth control of the balloon-borne gondola, this paper designs a simplified decoupling mechanism and a reaction wheel as actuators. Specifically, the reaction wheel achieves azimuth tracking through angular momentum exchange, while the simplified decoupling mechanism performs the functions of decoupling and unloading. To fully utilize the control performance of the actuating structure, this paper further proposes a control algorithm based on a nonlinear differential tracker and neural network PID. Simulation results demonstrate that under typical wind disturbances and sensor noise conditions, the proposed system exhibits excellent smoothness and high-precision and stable control performance. This research provides a significant basis for stable observation platforms in precise near-space observation missions.