Game-Based Distributed Fault-Tolerant Attitude–Vibration Control of Large Flexible Satellite

Advanced satellites with large flexible antennas promote Earth observation by enabling wide coverage and highresolution imaging. These deployable structures with low stiffness and large rotational inertia are particularly susceptible to space disturbances and are prone to structural vibrations. In this case, centralized control schemes can be ineffective, and faults in distributed actuators rapidly degrade system performance, jeopardizing mission success. Thus, this paper proposes a new game-based distributed control strategy for fault-tolerant attitude– vibration control for a large flexible satellite. First, the coupled dynamic model of distributed gyroelastic structures with actuator faults is established using the Lagrangian method. Then, a Stackelberg game control framework is developed. An attitude controller acts as the leader, while vibration and fault-tolerant controllers are the followers. Optimal feedback and saturated sliding-mode approaches are adopted for stable attitude–vibration control, and an alternating direction method of multipliers adaptively reallocates actuator output torques across distributed nodes under failure conditions. Comparative simulations demonstrate the proposed strategy’s superior performance in achieving integrated attitude stabilization and vibration suppression, while exhibiting stronger resilience to node failures, even under inertia parameter uncertainties. These results underscore its potential for future applications in large flexible spacecraft.