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Advanced Control of Space Vehicles
Special Master of Aerospace Engineering
Credits
6
Period
October 6th, 2025 - January 17th, 2026
Time and place
Wednesdays, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, Lecture room 3
Fridays, 5:00pm - 8:00pm, Lecture room 3
Lecture room 3 is at the School of Aerospace Engineering, via Salaria 851
Office hours
Contact me to fix an appointment
e-mail: fabio.celani@uniroma1.it
ph.: +39 06 4991 9755
Learning objectives
The main objective of this course is to introduce students to modern control theory tools used in the design and analysis of attitude control systems for aerospace vehicles. These tools are essential for developing advanced control systems that meet high-performance requirements. Students will also gain experience with a software application that supports the analysis and design processes using these tools.
Requirements
It is required that students know basic principles of spacecraft dynamics and control as taught in an introductory course similar to Spacecraft control.
Competences and learning outcomes
Students will learn mathematical results useful for analyzing and designing attitude control systems for aerospace vehicles.
Students will also learn how to use a software tool supporting analysis and design of attitude control systems for aerospace vehicles.
Contents (tentative)
Spacecraft detumbling, design of detumbling law, analysis of nonlinear closed-loop, Lyapunov's stability.
Spacecraft attitude regulation, design of attitude regulation law, analysis of nonlinear closed-loop. Krasovskii - La Salle's theorem, Lyapunov indirect method. Attitude regulation using rotation matrices.
Simulations with Matlab/Simulink.
Evaluation of the student’s training
Students will be evaluated trough an individual oral exam.
Bibliography and software application
• N. A. Chaturvedi, A. K. Sanyal, N. H. McClamroch. Rigid-Body Attitude Control. IEEE Control Systems Magazine. 31(3):30-51, June 2011. doi: 10.1109/MCS.2011.940459
• Matlab + Simulink + Aerospace Toolbox + Control Systems Toolbox + Symbolic Math Toolbox.
The textbooks are available for consultation at Sapienza libraries (see Sapienza library catalog).
Sapienza students can install Matlab and its toolboxes following the instructions indicated in this page (only in Italian).
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