Low-thrust orbit transfers based on the combination of the refined Q-law and fuzzy logic control

Abstract

Q-law has been studied a lot as an approach to transfer orbits. This paper presents a refined Q-law method integrated with fuzzy logic control for the satellite orbit transfers between arbitrary orbits around a central body. Q-law is adopted to decide thrust angles and determine whether to thrust or to coast. Furthermore, in order to eliminate vibrations, a fuzzy controller is constructed to change the magnitude of the thrust. The proposed scheme is applied to study a transfer from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit. A comparison with the existing Q-law scheme is implemented on a satellite via numerical simulation. The results show that the proposed strategy can not only eliminate vibrations but also decrease trajectory errors.