Control/Structure Integrated Design for Flexible Spacecraft Undergoing On-Orbit Maneuvers

Control structure integrated design has been applied to a satellite for which the nonlinear orbital dynamics are fully modeled. Final designs are shown to differ from those for which orbital dynamics are unmodeled. The effects of different constraints and weighting factors on the optimization procedure and final design are examined. For designs that are optimized with the defined constraints, the final design is found to be independent of the initial choice for the structural and control design variables. Because of the problem dependence of the final designs, weighting factors and optimization constraints must be chosen to accurately reflect physical mission costs and design limits for the particular mission being considered.