Abstract: In this paper,the issue on fast attitude maneuver control of a spacecraft with flexible appendix is studied.The characteristic model is derived based on the dynamics model of the spacecraft with flexible appendix.A characteristic model based adaptive control method is proposed which can achieve the fast attitude maneuver and vibration attenuation simultaneously.The controller is simple to design with explicit physical meanings on its design parameters and ease of the controller tuning.Both theoretical analysis and computer simulation show that the method proposed in this paper has good robust stability and robust performance to both varying controller parameters and plant uncertainties.Comparison with the traditional proportional-derivative(PD) control method shows that the adaptive control method proposed is superior to PD control in achieving faster attitude maneuver and vibration attenuation of the flexible spacecraft.

Key words: attitude fast maneuver, flexible spacecraft, adaptive control, characteristic model