Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics and Control

Attitude Kinematics

Luiz Carlos Gadelha

UFABC

Rotation between frames

Representation of Angular Velocity
Euler Angles: easy to visualize, but problems with singularities
Quaternions: no singularities, but no visualization
Attitude Matrix: direct application, but too many variables
 Attitude Kinematics
How to describe the attitude motion in terms of kinematics ?
That is : without taking into account the forces/torques that
causes the motion.. ?

Basicaly, the kinematics modelling concerns the angular velocity

of the body, or the time variation of attitude.

Representation of Angular Velocity

Let’s consider the same sequence of rotations already studied,
3-2-1 : first rotation about axis z, second about y, third about x.
 Attitude Kinematics
• The first component of the body angular velocity is the
velocity of the frame {𝑖}’ in relation to the frame {𝑖}

𝜔𝑖′𝑖 = 𝜃1 𝑖3 ′ = 𝜃1 𝑖3
• The components of the representation of this vector in both
frames are the same
0
𝜔𝑖′𝑖′𝑖 = 𝜔𝑖𝑖′𝑖 = 0
𝜃1
• The velocity of the frame {𝑖}’’ in relation to the frame {𝑖}’ and
its representation in both frames are
𝜔𝑖′′𝑖′ = 𝜃2 𝑖2 ′′ = 𝜃2 𝑖2 ′ 0
𝑖′′𝑖′
𝜔𝑖′′ = 𝜔𝑖′𝑖′′𝑖′ = 𝜃2
0
 Attitude Kinematics
• The velocity of the frame {𝑏} in relation to the frame {𝑖}’’ and
its representation in both frames are
𝜃3
𝜔𝑏𝑖′′ = 𝜃3 𝑏1 ′′ = 𝜃3 𝑖1 ′′ 𝜔𝑏𝑏𝑖′′ = 𝑏𝑖′′
𝜔𝑖′′ = 0
0
• Now, one can compute the body angular velocity in {𝑏} if
respect to {𝑖}
𝜔𝑏𝑖 = 𝜔𝑏𝑖′′ + 𝜔𝑖′′𝑖′ + 𝜔𝑖′𝑖

• This computation must be done using the representations in

the same frame. Let’s take the frame {𝑏}

0 1 0 0 0 0
𝜔𝑏𝑖′′𝑖′ = 𝑅1 𝜃3 𝜃2 = 0 cos 𝜃3 sin 𝜃3 𝜃2 = cos 𝜃3 𝜃2
0 0 − sin 𝜃3 cos 𝜃3 0 −sin 𝜃3 𝜃24
 Attitude Kinematics
With two rotations from frame { 𝑖 } to {𝑏}

0 − sin 𝜃2 𝜃1
𝜔𝑏𝑖′𝑖 = 𝑅1 𝜃3 𝑅2 (𝜃2 ) 0 = cos 𝜃2 sin 𝜃3 𝜃1
𝜃1 cos 𝜃2 cos 𝜃3 𝜃1

The components of the body angular velocity in the frame {𝑏}

𝜃3 − sin 𝜃2 𝜃1 − sin 𝜃2 0 1 𝜃1
𝜔𝑏𝑏𝑖 = cos 𝜃3 𝜃2 +cos 𝜃2 sin 𝜃3 𝜃1 = cos 𝜃2 sin 𝜃3 cos 𝜃3 0 𝜃2
− sin 𝜃3 𝜃2 cos 𝜃2 cos 𝜃3 𝜃1 cos 𝜃2 cos 𝜃3 − sin 𝜃3 0 𝜃
3

• In compact form
𝜔𝑏𝑏𝑖 = 𝑆 Θ Θ

S(ϴ) obviously depends on which Euler angle sequence is used, and if one
integrates the expression above one obtains Wx, Wy, Wz.
 Attitude Kinematics

The last expression represents the relation between the time variation
of Euler Angles (ϴ1 , ϴ2 , ϴ3 )and the angular velocities Wx, Wy, Wz.
mesured in the fixed axes of the body

This is the case of sensor (gyro) installed in the satellite body!

 Attitude Kinematics
Usually, one needs the inverse expression, i.e. the sensors provide
mesures of angular velocities in the body axes, and one wants to know
the value of the Euler Angles’ derivatives

sin 𝜃3 cos 𝜃3
0
𝜃1 cos 𝜃2 cos 𝜃2
𝜃2 = 0 cos 𝜃3 − sin 𝜃3 𝜔𝑏𝑏𝑖
𝜃3 sin 𝜃3 sin 𝜃2 cos 𝜃3 sin 𝜃2
1
cos 𝜃2 cos 𝜃2
Θ=𝑆 Θ −1 𝜔𝑏𝑖
𝑏
 Attitude Kinematics
Careful examination of 1/S shows that some of the elements of
this matrix become large (infinite) when cos(ϴ2) approaches π/2.

This problem is usually called a kinematic singularity, and is one of

the difficulties when using Euler angles as attitude variables.

Even though the angular velocity may be small, the Euler angle
rates can become quite large. For a different Euler angle
sequence, the kinematic singularity occurs at a different point.

Because the singularity occurs at a different point for different

sequences, one way to deal with the singularity is to switch the
Euler angle sequences whenever a singularity is approached.
 Attitude Kinematics
The attitude variation (velocity) in terms of Angle/Axis
(parameters of Euler) is given by

Φ = 𝑎𝑇 𝜔
1 × Φ × ×
𝑎 = 𝑎 − cot 𝑎 𝑎 𝜔
2 2

The kinematic singularity in these equations is evidently at φ = 0

or 2π, both of which correspond to R = 1 which means the two
reference frames are identical.
 Attitude Kinematics
The attitude variation (velocity) in terms of quaternions is given by

𝑑𝑞 1 𝑞 × + 𝑞4 𝐼3×3
= 𝑇 𝜔=𝑄 𝑞 𝜔
𝑑𝑡 2 −𝑞

It is important to observe that there are no kinematic singularities

associated with quaternions, it is not necessity to worry with
trigonometric functions to evaluate.

For these reasons, the quaternion is the attitude variable of choice

for most satellite attitude dynamics applications.
 Attitude Kinematics
In compact form
𝑑 1
𝑞 = Ω 𝜔 𝑞
𝑑𝑡 2

0 𝜔3 −𝜔2 𝜔1
−𝜔3 0 𝜔1 𝜔2
Ω 𝜔 = 𝜔 −𝜔1
2 0 𝜔3
−𝜔1 −𝜔2 −𝜔3 0

These basic equations presented provides the background for

describing reference frames, their orientations with respect to
each other, and the transformation of vectors from one frame
to another. As a result, the angular velocity of the satellite
 Attitude Kinematics
It’s also possible to express the kinematics of attitude in terms of
the attitude matrix

𝑅 𝑡 + Δ𝑡 = Φ 𝑡 + Δ𝑡, 𝑡 𝑅(𝑡)
𝑑𝑅(𝑡)
= [𝜔× ]𝑅(𝑡)
𝑑𝑡

Usually, one uses different representation parameters in parallel because

their advantages and disadvantages/problems:

Euler Angles: easy to visualize, but problems with singularities

Quaternions: no singularities, but no visualization
Attitude Matrix: direct application, but too many variables
 First list of exercices:

• Chap1 : Exercises 4, 5 and 7

• Chap2 : 2.5 - Exercises 1 and 2

• Chap3 : Exercises 3 , 5 and 7

• Delivery : 9/03/2018
 Some references
• James R. Wertz (Editor), "Spacecraft Attitude Determination
and Control", Springer, 1978.
• Vincent L. Pisacane (Editor), "Fundamentals of Space
Systems", Oxford Univ Press, 2005.
• Marcel J. Sidi. “Spacecraft Dynamics and Control: A Practical
Engineering Approach”. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• V. A. Chobotov. “Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics and Control”.
Krieger Publishing Co., 1991.
• Bong Wie. “Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control”. AIAA, 1998.
• M. D. Shuster, “A Survey of Attitude Representations,” The
Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 41, No. 4, October–
December 1993, pp. 439–517.