Imitation Learning for Satellite Attitude Control under Unknown Perturbations

This paper presents a novel satellite attitude control framework that integrates Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning with Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning (GAIL) to achieve robust performance under various unknown perturbations. Traditional control techniques often rely on precise system models and are sensitive to parameter uncertainties and external perturbations. To overcome these limitations, we first develop a SAC-based expert controller that demonstrates improved resilience against actuator failures, sensor noise, and attitude misalignments, outperforming our previous results in several challenging scenarios. We then use GAIL to train a learner policy that imitates the expert's trajectories, thereby reducing training costs and improving generalization through expert demonstrations. Preliminary experiments under single and combined perturbations show that the SAC expert can rotate the antenna to a specified direction and keep the antenna orientation reliably stable in most of the listed perturbations. Additionally, the GAIL learner can imitate most of the features from the trajectories generated by the SAC expert. Comparative evaluations and ablation studies confirm the effectiveness of the SAC algorithm and reward shaping. The integration of GAIL further reduces sample complexity and demonstrates promising imitation capabilities, paving the way for more intelligent and autonomous spacecraft control systems. INTRODUCTION Aiming at accurately orienting and stabilizing satellites towards specific directions or targets in space, satellite attitude control is a critical aspect of spacecraft missions. Particularly in environments with perturbations (such as orbital perturbations, atmospheric drag, or solar radiation pressure), traditional control methods often require additional compensation strategies.