93-123
Closest Bifurcation Analysis Applied To Design Of Flexible Satellites
Andre P. Mazzoleni* and Ian Dobson**
Abstract
We consider the design of a satellite to ensure robust stability in a high dimensional parameter space. Starting with a given nominal design which i8 stable, we compute instabilities which are locally closest to the nominal design in the design parameter space. If these worst case instabilities are too close, we compute a design which is sufficiently far from the worst case instabilities and hence sufficiently robust. The methods are based on computations from bifurcation theory and are considerably simplified by our assumption of a Hamiltonian satellite with additional position independent damping. We illustrate the computations by ensuring the robust stability of a flexible dual spin satellite with six design parameters.
*Department of Engineering, Texas Christian University, TCU Box 5100, Fort Worth, Texas 76129.
**Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Johnson Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.