This book is based on my experience with the control systems of antennas and radiotelescopes. Overwhelmingly, it is based on experience with the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas. It includes modeling the antennas, developing control algorithms, field testing, system identification, performance evaluation, and troubleshooting. My previous book1 emphasized the theoretical aspects of antenna control engineering, while this one describes the application part of the antenna control engineering.

Recently, the increased requirements for antenna/telescope pointing accuracy have been imposed. In the case of DSN antennas, it was the shift from the S-band (4 GHz) and X-band (8 GHz) communication to Ka band (32 GHz). On the other hand, the Large Millimeter Telescope will operate up to 200 GHz, which requires extremely accurate pointing. These requirements bring new challenges to the antenna control engineers. Classical PI controllers cannot assure the required accuracy, while model-based controllers (LQG, and H∞) increase the antenna accuracy by a factor of 10. These controllers are new for antenna/telescope engineering. This book describes their development and application.