Practical Finite-Time Attitude Reorientation Control for Rigid Spacecraft With Forbidden Pointing Constraints and Physical Limitations

This article investigates the spacecraft attitude reorientation problem with forbidden pointing constraints and physical limitations. Relying on kinematics of the spacecraft, a nominal virtual angular velocity is first designed to guarantee that the spacecraft can maneuver to the desired attitude within a finite settling time while avoiding the unwinding problem. Then, based on control barrier function theory, a safety filter is constructed to synthesize a safe virtual angular velocity which ensures the satisfaction of attitude constraints and angular velocity limitations. At the dynamic system level, a prescribed performance controller is developed to provide feasible transient and steady-state performance requirements for the angular velocity tracking error. Moreover, an anti-saturation compensator is introduced to mitigate control input saturation. Lyapunov methods are employed to demonstrate the practical finite-time stability of the closed-loop system under attitude pointing constraints, physical limitations, and external disturbances. Two numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed approach.