Sloshing-aware attitude control of impulsively actuated spacecraft

In this tutorial paper we present a novel modeling methodology to derive a nonlinear dynamical model which adequately describes the effect of fuel sloshing on the attitude dynamics of a spacecraft. We model the impulsive thrusters using mixed logic and dynamics leading to a hybrid formulation. We design a hybrid model predictive control scheme for the attitude control of a launcher during its long coasting period, aiming at minimising the actuation count of the thrusters.