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CEAS EuroGNC 2026

Simulation and linear-parameter varying control of a large flexible appendage deployment
Andrea Marrazza Research engineer, DYCSYT, Toulouse, France.
Ervan Kassarian Robust control expert, DYCSYT, Toulouse, France.
Francesco Sanfedino Associate Professor, Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO ONERA, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
Daniel Alazard Professor, Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO ONERA, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
Diego Navarro-Tapia Senior Research Associate, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain.
Andrés Marcos Depart. Aerospace Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain.
Joost Veenman Robust control systems expert, SENER Aerospacial, Spain.
Abstract:
This work investigates a Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) control framework that enables continuous satellite attitude control during deployment of large flexible appendages, scheduled by hinge angles. An LPV model of the satellite is derived in the Linear Fractional Transformation framework based on a multibody approach, and validated against a high-fidelity Simscape nonlinear model. Two LPV controllers are then designed and compared: an analytical PD-based controller, which continuously adapts gains to the time-varying inertia and maintains attitude control throughout the entire deployment sequence; and a robust H-infinity LPV controller, designed for the first deployment phase, which demonstrates improved pointing performance over the analytical baseline. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control approach, highlighting its potential to improve both performance and operational simplicity in future missions.
Keywords: LPV control; deployment; large flexible appendages; robust control; spacecraft
 View PDF CEAS-GNC-2026-064 doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-064


Andrea Marrazza, Ervan Kassarian, Francesco Sanfedino, Daniel Alazard, Diego Navarro-Tapia, Andrés Marcos, Joost Veenman: Simulation and linear-parameter varying control of a large flexible appendage deployment. Proceedings of the 2026 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Madrid, Spain. May 2026. doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-064.
BibTeX entry (UTF-8):

@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2026-064,
    author = {Marrazza, Andrea and Kassarian, Ervan and Sanfedino, Francesco and Alazard, Daniel and Navarro-Tapia, Diego and Marcos, Andrés and Veenman, Joost},
    title = {Simulation and linear-parameter varying control of a large flexible appendage deployment},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},
    address = {Madrid, Spain},
    month = may,
    year = {2026},
    doi = {10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-064}
}