Adaptive Control of a 5-Degree-of-Freedom Spacecraft Testbed Considering Actuator Degradation

In this paper, we present a novel adaptive controller for a 5 degree-of-freedom spacecraft testbed that tracks a desired reference frame using only moving mass actuators in the presence of actuator degradation. Specifically, the case when the system does not provide the desired torque values exactly is considered here. Euler’s rotational equations of motion are used to model the system dynamics. The closed-loop system is shown to be stable through Lyapunov analysis, and numerical simulation results are provided to illustrate the controller’s effectiveness in the presence of unknown actuator degradation.