Robust attitude tracking control of flexible spacecraft for achieving globally asymptotic stability

Abstract

SUMMARYThe three-axis attitude tracking control problem in the presence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances for a spacecraft with flexible appendages is investigated in this paper. Novel simple robust Lyapunov-based controllers that require only the attitude and angular velocity measurement are proposed. The first controller is a discontinuous one composed of a nonlinear PD part plus a sign function, whereas the second one is continuous or even smooth by modifying the discontinuous part of the first one. For a general desired trajectory, both controllers can achieve globally asymptotic stability of the attitude and angular velocity tracking errors instead of ultimate boundedness. By using a two-step proof technique, the partial stability of the proposed controllers for the resulting closed-loop systems in the face of model uncertainties and unexpected disturbances is proven theoretically. To further enhance the control performance, a continuous controller is presented that utilizes the tracking errors for estimating the external disturbances. In addition, stability analysis is done. For all the developed controllers, numerical simulation results are provided to demonstrate their performance.

Anti‐unwinding nonsingular terminal sliding mode control with attitude maneuver planning for flexible spacecraft

“…[13][14][15][16] The basic idea of SMC techniques is first to propose a sliding manifold, 17 and then design SMC controllers to drive all the system trajectories to the constructed sliding surface. 18,19 In Reference 20, two integral terms were added to the conventional sliding manifold, and an integral sliding mode controller was presented for a purely magnetic attitude control system. In Reference 21, a novel time-varying sliding mode which contains two integral terms was constructed to solve an attitude stabilization problem.…”

Two‐Layer Terminal Sliding Mode Attitude Control of Satellites Equipped with Reaction Wheels

“…Amongst different actuators, the reaction wheels are acknowledged for their proven performance, relative simplicity, fast response and high pointing control accuracy. Regardless of the actuators type, various control approaches have been proposed for satellite attitude stability and tracking problem including optimal approach [10,11], adaptive control [12,13], robust control [14,15], Lyapunov-based methods [9,16,17], observer-based approaches [18,19], fuzzy control [20,21], and sliding mode control [22][23][24]. Among all mentioned methods, the sliding mode control (SMC) approach is acknowledged for its ability to cope with the uncertainties and disturbances in the nonlinear systems.…”

“…Amongst different actuators, the reaction wheels are acknowledged for their proven performance, relative simplicity, fast response and high pointing control accuracy. Regardless of the actuators type, various control approaches have been proposed for satellite attitude stability and tracking problem including optimal approach , adaptive control , robust control , Lyapunov‐based methods , observer‐based approaches , fuzzy control , and sliding mode control .…”

Very large space structures: Non-linear control and robustness to structural uncertainties

“…In [12] it has been theoretically shown that the robust control problem is equivalent to the optimal control problem, which guarantees both asymptotic stability and optimality in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances such as the ones produced by the flexibility. In [13] a three-axis attitude tracking control problem in the presence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances has been investigated and a control synthesis based on Lyapunov direct method with modified Rodrigues parameterization has been proposed. This paper does not focus on the use of additional devices (PZT) or advanced robust control strategies for facing the problem of attitude control of a VLSS.…”