Prescribed-Time Boresight Control of Spacecraft Under Pointing Constraints

This article proposes an integrated boresight guidance and control (IBGC) scheme to address the boresight reorientation problem of spacecraft under temporal and pointing constraints. A C¹ continuous, saturated prescribed-time adjustment (PPTA) function is presented, along with the establishment of a practical prescribed-time stability criterion. Utilizing the time scale transformation technique and the PPTA function, we propose a prescribed-time guidance law that guides the boresight vector from almost any initial orientation in free space to a small neighborhood of the goal orientation within a preassigned time, while avoiding all forbidden zones augmented with safety margins. Subsequently, a prescribed-time disturbance observer (PTDO) is derived to reconstruct the external disturbances. By leveraging barrier and PPTA functions, a PTDO-based reduced-attitude tracking controller is developed, which ensures prescribed-time boresight tracking within a “safe tube.” By judiciously setting the safety margins, settling times, and safe tube for the guidance and control laws, the proposed IBGC scheme achieves pointing-constrained boresight reorientation within a required task completion time. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed IBGC scheme.