MULTIOBJECTIVE GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR STABILITY ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE ARTICULATED PLANTS

摘要

Flexible spacecraft with multiple articulated degrees of freedom result in model complexity and configuration space size that can render typical stability verification methods computationally infeasible. Therefore, this work explores the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm for an automated stability search tool that aims to identify plant configurations that lead to poor stability. The genetic algorithm is applied to an example plant with one articulated degree of freedom and quickly locates the global minima for all specified stability margins. The real power of the genetic algorithm emerges when applied to a system with multiple articulated degrees of freedom. A lumped parameter plant with two solar arrays and two articulated payloads is fabricated to exhibit poor stability behavior in certain configurations. The genetic algorithm successfully identifies these problematic configurations.