Purpose The purpose of this paper is to resolve complex nonlinear dynamical problems of the pitching axis of solar sail in body coordinate system compared with inertial coordinate system. And saturation condition of controlled torque of vane in the orbit with big eccentricity ration, uncertainty and external disturbance under complex space background are considered. Design/methodology/approach The pitch dynamics of the sailcraft in the prescribed elliptic earth orbits is established considering the torques by the control vanes, gravity gradient and offset between the center-of-mass (cm) and center-of-pressure (cp). The maximal torques afforded by the control vanes are numerically determined for the sailcraft at any position with any pitch angle, which will be used as the restriction of the attitude control torques. The finite/infinite time adaptive sliding mode saturation controller and Bang–Bang–Radial Basis Function (RBF) controller are designed for the sailcraft with restricted attitude control torques. The model uncertainty and the input error (the error between real input and ideal control law input) are solved using the RBF network. Findings The finite true anomaly adaptive sliding mode saturation controller performed better than the other two controllers by comparing the numerical results in the paper. The control torque saturation, the model uncertainty and the external disturbance were also effectively solved using the infinite and finite time adaptive sliding mode saturation controllers by analyzing the numerical simulations. The stabilization of the pitch motion was accomplished within half orbit period. Practical implications The complex accurate dynamics can be approximated using the RBF network. The controllers can be applied to stabilization of spacecraft attitude dynamics with uncertainties in complex space environment. Originality/value Advanced control method is used in this paper; saturation of controlled torque of vane is resolved when the orbit with big eccentricity ration is considered and uncertainty and external disturbance under complex space background are settled. Moreover, complex and accurate nonlinear dynamical model of pitching axis of solar sail in body coordinate system compared with inertial coordinate system is provided.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to resolve the problem of the dynamic response performance of the driving control system for a six-wheeled planetary rover. An adaptive sliding mode controller based on an improved genetic algorithm (IGA) to tune PID sliding surface parameters was used in the driving control system of the planetary rover. Design/methodology/approach First, the mathematical model of planetary rover driving control is established. Second, according to sliding mode variable structure control, an equivalent controller and a disturbance controller are constructed to solve the problem of a multi-disturbance nonlinear driving control system of planetary rovers and an IGA is used to tune PID parameters. Findings Simulation results show that the proposed control algorithm improves the accuracy of the driving control system and optimizes the smoothness of rover motion control. Practical implications The controller based on the IGA to tune PID sliding surface parameters has good self-adaptability and real-time controllability for the control object which is difficult to present a precise mathematical model. Originality/value The advanced control method is adopted to solve the uncertainty and external interference of planetary rovers in a complex environment. The mathematical model of the six-wheeled rover is established as the control object and the uncertainty and external disturbance of the model are considered. The controller based on IGA has good adaptability and real-time performance and the control algorithm can be used to drive robots in complex environments.