Patent ID: 7974746

Claim:
A system for controlling the attitude of a satellite, comprising a plurality of control moment gyroscopes (CMG) in an array; a controller for controlling the array of CMGs and providing singularity escape, the controller further including: a Jacobian calculation module to calculate a Jacobian value of a set of CMG control equations; a determinant Jacobian Module utilizing the Jacobian matrix to produce a Jacobian Determinant value that is a measure of closeness to a singularity; a comparison module for comparing the Jacobian Determinant value to a threshold value, when the calculated determinant value is less than or equal to the threshold value, recalculating the Jacobian, when the calculated determinant value is greater than the threshold value, calculating a gimbal rate command; and a control module for transmitting the gimbal rate command to the plurality control moment gyroscopes to control the attitude of the satellite.