MPC for coupled station keeping, attitude control, and momentum management of GEO satellites using on-off electric propulsion

This paper develops a model predictive control (MPC) policy for simultaneous station keeping, attitude control, and momentum management of a nadir-pointing geostationary satellite equipped with three reaction wheels and four on-off electric thrusters mounted on two boom assemblies attached to the anti-nadir face of the satellite. A closed-loop pulse-width modulation (PWM) scheme is implemented in conjunction with the MPC policy in order to generate on-off commands to the thrusters. The MPC policy is shown to satisfy all station keeping and attitude constraints while managing stored momentum, enforcing thruster constraints, and minimizing required delta-v.