N.H. McClamroch

TL;DR: A time-varying feedback control law for three dimensional reconfiguration of a multibody spacecraft with joint actuation only is presented in this paper, which is based on a formula that was developed in Rui et al. (1996) for approximating the orientation changes induced by small amplitude periodic joint motions.

TL;DR: A maneuver is proposed that offers improved imaging performance and an optimal control problem to minimize fuel consumption and further maximize image quality by minimizing the relative speed, which is proportional to the signal-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed image.

TL;DR: The article describes the experiences in developing and teaching such a course to sophomores in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, and describes important features of the particular aerospace engineering course and its treatment of flight systems issues.

TL;DR: In this article, a three dimensional reorientation problem for an underactuated multibody spacecraft in the case of constant nonzero angular momentum is studied, and an explicit algorithm is provided for synthesizing periodic open loop shape changes for reorienting the spacecraft from a given initial orientation to a desired final orientation within a specified finite time interval while the initial and final shapes of the spacecraft are the same.

TL;DR: In this paper, the control and dynamics of complex mechanical systems with unactuated cyclic coordinates, using only internal controls, are treated and a feedback scheme based on this approach is applied to the example of a dumbbell body in planar motion with an attitude control input in a central gravitational field.