Controllability and observability of gyroelastic vehicles

Stored angular momentum devices such as reaction wheels and control moment gyros have been used extensively for space vehicle attitude control. The vibration characteristics of these gyroelastic vehicles are affected by the presence of stored angular momentum and, hence, so are the conditions for controllability and observability. In this paper, these conditions are derived for systems modeled as gyroelastic continua. The conditions are expressed in terms of the gyroelastic modes and cover the case of pointwise actuators and those modeled in a continuum fashion.