Attitude Planning of Single-Axis Underactuated Spacecraft with Forbidden Pointing Constraint

In this paper, an attitude maneuver problem for an underactuated spacecraft is studied subject to one conical forbidden pointing constraint. The torqueless axis is assumed fixing in one direction of the spacecraft body. The constrained maneuver is achieved by planning two steps of principle Euler rotations. For prospects of less rotation path, two categories of planning solutions, i.e. internal and external tangency, are obtained respectively. Furthermore, a special control law is developed to track the planning trajectory. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the planning scheme.