Spacecraft output feedback attitude control based on extended state observer and adaptive dynamic programming

This paper investigates spacecraft output feedback attitude control problem based on extended state observer (ESO) and adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) approach. For the plant described by the unit quaternion, an ESO is first presented in view of the property of the attitude motion, and the norm constraint on the unit quaternion can be satisfied theoretically. The practical convergence proof of the developed ESO is illustrated by change of coordinates. Then, the controller is designed with an involvement of two parts: the basic part and the supplementary part. For the basic part, a proportional-derivative control law is designed. For the supplementary part, an ADP method called action-dependent heuristic dynamic programming (ADHDP) is adopted, which provides a supplementary control action according to the differences between the actual and the desired system signals. Simulation studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.