Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of low earth orbit satellites’ attitude control in the detumbling mode. By putting the exceptional capabilities of fuzzy systems into practice, a new fuzzy-magnetic controller is proposed by behavioral and functional analysis of the satellite attitude tumbling and its dynamical properties. It is assumed that the satellite is equipped with only three low-cost magnetic actuators in each axis. Using real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulations, it is shown that the proposed fuzzy-magnetic controller is able to capture the satellite attitude even if the magnetorquers are saturated.