Distributed fault‐tolerant control design for spacecraft finite‐time attitude synchronization

This paper develops two distributed finite‐time fault‐tolerant control algorithms for attitude synchronization of multiple spacecraft with a dynamic virtual leader in the presence of modeling uncertainties, external disturbances, and actuator faults. The leader gives commands only to a subset of the followers, and the communication flow between followers is directed. By employing a novel distributed nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode and adaptive mechanism, a distributed finite‐time fault‐tolerant control law is proposed to guarantee all the follower spacecraft that finite‐time track a dynamic virtual leader. Then utilizing three distributed finite‐time sliding mode estimators, an estimator‐based distributed finite‐time fault‐tolerant control law is proposed using only the followers' estimates of the virtual leader. Both of them do not require online identification of the actuator faults and provide robustness, finite‐time convergence, fault‐tolerant, disturbance rejection, and high control precision. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to evaluate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decentralized sliding‐mode control for attitude synchronization in spacecraft formation

This paper addresses attitude synchronization and tracking problems in spacecraft formation in the presence of model uncertainties and external disturbances. A decentralized adaptive sliding mode control law is proposed using undirected interspacecraft communication topology and analyzed based on algebraic graph theory. A multispacecraft sliding manifold is derived, on which each spacecraft approaches desired time‐varying attitude and angular velocity while maintaining attitude synchronization with the other spacecraft in the formation. A control law is then developed to ensure convergence to the sliding manifold. The stability of the resulting closed‐loop system is proved by application of Barbalat's Lemma. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed attitude synchronization and tracking methodology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed adaptive attitude synchronization of multiple spacecraft

This paper addresses the distributed attitude synchronization problem of multiple spacecraft with unknown inertia matrices. Two distributed adaptive controllers are proposed for the cases with and without a virtual leader to which a time-varying reference attitude is assigned. The first controller achieves attitude synchronization for a group of spacecraft with a leaderless communication topology having a directed spanning tree. The second controller guarantees that all spacecraft track the reference attitu...     

多航天器系统分布式有限时间姿态协同跟踪控制

基于一致性算法, 在有向通讯拓扑下, 研究存在状态约束的多航天器系统分布式有限时间姿态协同跟踪控制问题. 在仅有部分跟随航天器可以获取领航航天器状态, 并且跟随航天器之间存在不完全信息交互的情形下, 设计了分布式快速终端滑模面, 提出了不依赖于模型的分布式有限时间姿态协同跟踪控制律. 根据有限时间Lyapunov 稳定性定理, 证明了系统的状态在有限时间内收敛于领航航天器状态的小邻域内. 最后通过仿真算例验证了所提出算法的有效性.

     

Synchronization and Tracking of Multi‐Spacecraft Formation Attitude Control Using Adaptive Sliding Mode

This paper presents the finite‐time attitude synchronization and tracking control method of undirected multi‐spacecraft formation with external disturbances. First, a modified adaptive nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode surface (ANFTSMS) is designed by introducing a user‐defined function, both of which avoid the singularity problem and continuous sliding surface, and, therefore, can freely adjust relative weighting between angular velocity error and attitude error adaptively, such that the controller can provide sufficient maneuvers and precision. This provides designers with a new technique to adjust and improve formation control performance. Second, by applying the ANFTSMS associated with adaptation, two proposed decentralized ANFTSM‐controllers provide finite‐time convergence, robustness to disturbance, and chattering free for continuous design. Finally, simulation results validate the proposed algorithms.     

Attitude synchronization control for a group of flexible spacecraft

To solve the problem of attitude synchronization for a group of flexible spacecraft during formation maneuvers, a distributed attitude cooperative control strategy is investigated in this paper. Based on the backstepping design and the neighbor-based design rule, a distributed attitude control law is constructed step by step. Using cascaded systems’ theory and graph theory, it is shown that the attitude synchronization is achieved asymptotically and the induced vibrations by flexible appendages are simultaneously suppressed under the proposed control law.     

考虑状态约束的航天器编队分布式姿态协同跟踪控制

针对有向通信拓扑结构下的航天器编队姿态协同控制问题,提出一种基于反步法的分布式姿态协同跟踪控制律.在仅有部分跟随航天器可以获取动态领航航天器信息的情况下,利用多层神经网络的逼近特性对系统的非线性不确定性进行估计.同时,考虑到航天器编队的姿态协同跟踪控制性能,构造Barrier Lyapunov函数,使得状态变量保持在预设的约束区间内,进而实现对姿态跟踪误差的约束.根据代数图论和Lyapunov理论,证明跟随航天器的姿态跟踪误差最终有界.仿真分析表明了所提出控制方法的有效性.     

Finite‐time attitude control of multiple rigid spacecraft using terminal sliding mode

This paper investigates the control problem of finite‐time attitude synchronization and tracking for a group of rigid spacecraft in the presence of environmental disturbances. A new fast terminal sliding manifold is developed for multiple spacecraft formation flying under the undirected graph topology. On the basis of the finite‐time control and adaptive control strategies, two novel decentralized finite‐time control laws are proposed to force the spacecraft attitude error dynamics to converge to small regions in finite time, and adaptive control is applied to reject the disturbance. The finite‐time convergence and stability of the closed‐loop system can be guaranteed by Lyapunov theory. Simulation examples are provided to illustrate the feasibility of the control algorithm. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Output attitude tracking for flexible spacecraft

In this work a class of nonlinear controllers has been derived for spacecraft with flexible appendages. The control aim is to track a given desired attitude. First, a static controller based on the measure of the whole state is determined. Then, a dynamic controller is designed; this controller does not use measures from the modal variables, and the variables measured are the parameters describing the attitude and the spacecraft angular velocity. Finally, it is shown that a relaxed version of the tracking problem can be solved when the only measured variable is the spacecraft angular velocity. Simulations show the performances of such control schemes.     

Distributed finite‐time formation control for multiple quadrotors via local communications

This paper investigates finite‐time formation tracking control problem for multiple quadrotors with external disturbance. The states of the virtual leader are not available to all the followers and the network topology is described by a directed graph. The model of each quadrotor is divided into position subsystem and attitude subsystem. Firstly, novel distributed finite‐time state observers are designed to estimate the relative state errors between followers and the virtual leader. Secondly, the values of these observers are used to design controllers that achieve finite‐time robust coordinated tracking in the position subsystem. Thirdly, the terminal sliding mode disturbance observers and finite‐time attitude tracking controllers are proposed, respectively, in the attitude subsystem to estimate the external disturbance and achieve attitude tracking control. The finite‐time stability analysis of the control algorithms is carried out using the Lyapunov theory and the homogeneous technique. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by numerical simulations.     

转动惯量存在不确定性的挠性航天器滑模姿态控制

在转动惯量存在不确定性时,采用滑动模态控制方法对挠性航天器设计了姿态镇定控制律.由于挠性模态是不可量测的,首先设计了部分状态观测器对挠性模态进行估计.进而结合滑模控制方法,提出了基于观测器的滑模姿态控制律.采用Lyapunov方法证明了在存在转动惯量不确定性时,所设计的滑模姿态控制律能使闭环航天器姿态系统稳定.最后,通过数值仿真例子验证了所提出方法的有效性.     

Global finite-time attitude consensus tracking control for a group of rigid spacecraft

The problem of finite-time attitude consensus for multiple rigid spacecraft with a leader–follower architecture is investigated in this paper. To achieve the finite-time attitude consensus, at the first step, a distributed finite-time convergent observer is proposed for each follower to estimate the leader's attitude in a finite time. Then based on the terminal sliding mode control method, a new finite-time attitude tracking controller is designed such that the leader's attitude can be tracked in a finite time. Finally, a finite-time observer-based distributed control strategy is proposed. It is shown that the attitude consensus can be achieved in a finite time under the proposed controller. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Cooperative controller design for synchronization of networked uncertain Euler–Lagrange systems

This paper addresses the synchronization problems with/without a dynamic leader for a team of distributed Lagrange systems on digraph. A systematic way to design and analyze the distributed control algorithms is presented. The contributions of the paper are twofold. First, the adaptive coordination control protocols are proposed for synchronization of networked uncertain Lagrange systems with/without tracking. This protocol can guarantee synchronization in finite time. Second, the design of the distributed tracking controller for the networked dynamic systems is proposed by using Lyapunov methods. The development is suitable for the general digraph communication topologies. Simulation examples are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed fixed‐time attitude coordination control for multiple rigid spacecraft

In this paper, the fixed‐time attitude coordination control for multiple rigid spacecraft under an undirected communication graph is investigated. By using the backstepping technique, the distributed fixed‐time observer, and the method of “adding a power integrator,” a distributed fixed‐time attitude coordination control law is designed for a group of spacecraft. The proposed control scheme is nonsingular and can guarantee a group of rigid spacecraft simultaneously tracking a common desired attitude within fixed time even when the time‐varying reference attitude is available only to a subset of the group members. Rigorous analysis is provided to show that the attitude consensus tracking errors can converge to the origin in finite time which is bounded by a fixed constant independent of initial conditions. Numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law.     

多航天器系统分布式固定时间输出反馈姿态协同跟踪控制

针对角速度信息不可测条件下的多航天器系统姿态协同跟踪控制问题,提出一种基于积分滑模的分布式固定时间姿态协同跟踪控制方法.基于bi-limit齐次性理论设计一种新型的固定时间收敛的积分滑模面.为估计出不可测的航天器信息,提出一种固定时间观测器,同时为减少航天器间的通信信息流,引入滑模估计器估计领航者的姿态信息.结合固定时...     

Distributed adaptive attitude tracking of multiple spacecraft with a leader of nonzero input

This paper considers the distributed attitude tracking problem of multiple spacecraft with a leader whose control input is possibly nonzero, bounded, and not available to any follower. Based on the relative attitudes and angular velocities of neighboring spacecraft, we design a distributed discontinuous adaptive controller to each follower to guarantee that the attitude errors between the followers and the leader converge to zero for any communication graph containing a directed spanning tree with the leader as the root. To tackle the chattering effect caused by the discontinuous controller, we further propose a distributed continuous adaptive controller, under which both the attitude tracking errors and the adaptive gains are ultimately bounded.     

Decentralised cooperative attitude tracking using modified Rodriguez parameters based on relative attitude information

In this article, the problem of decentralised cooperative attitude tracking based on relative attitude information is considered in the context of deep space spacecraft formation flying. We use modified Rodriguez parameters for attitude representation due to its nonreduction. We first present a distributed sliding-mode estimator and a cooperative attitude tracking control law such that the attitudes and angular velocities of all spacecraft track their references. Then we extend the result to three different cases. In the first case, we use a passivity approach to derive a control law without angular velocity measurements, which is of significance for applications with low-cost configurations of spacecraft. In the second case, to relax the special connectivity condition given in the original control design, we obtain a locally asymptotical stability condition for any undirected connected communication topology. In the third case, we consider cooperative attitude tracking in the presence of a dynamic communication topology. Simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of these control laws.     

Robust attitude and vibration control of a nonlinear flexible spacecraft

In this paper, the problem of attitude control of a three dimension nonlinear flexible spacecraft is investigated. Two nonlinear controllers are presented. The first controller is based on dynamic inversion, while the second approach is composed of dynamic inversion and µ‐synthesis schemes. It is assumed that only three torques in three directions on the hub are used. Actuator saturation is also considered in the design of controllers. To evaluate the performance of the proposed controllers, an extensive number of simulations on a nonlinear model of the spacecraft are performed. The performances of the proposed controllers are compared in terms of nominal performance, robustness to uncertainties, vibration suppression of panel, sensitivity to measurement noise, environmental disturbance and nonlinearity in large maneuvers. Simulation results confirm the ability of the proposed controller in tracking the attitude trajectory while suppressing the panel vibration. It is also verified that the perturbations, environment disturbances and measurement errors have only slight effects on the tracking and suppression performances. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Characteristic Model-based Discrete-time Sliding Mode Control for Spacecraft with Variable Tilt of Flexible Structures

In this paper, the finite-time attitude tracking control problem for the spacecrafts with variable tilt of flexible appendages in the conditions of exogenous disturbances and inertia uncertainties is addressed. First the characteristic modeling method is applied to the problem of the spacecraft modeling. Second, a novel adaptive sliding mode surface is designed based on the characteristic model. Furthermore, a discrete-time sliding mode control (DTSMC) law, which makes the tracking error converge into a predefined bound in finite time, is proposed by employing the parameters of characteristic model associated with the sliding mode surface to provide better performances, robustness, faster response, and higher control precision. The designed DTSMC includes the adaptive control architecture and is chattering-free. Finally, digital simulations of a sun synchronous orbit satellite (SSOS) are presented to illustrate effectiveness of the control strategies as well as to verify the practical feasibility of the rapid maneuver mission.      

Leader‐following attitude consensus of multiple uncertain spacecraft systems subject to external disturbance

The attitude consensus problem of multiple rigid spacecraft systems is one of the key issues in spacecraft formation flying and has been extensively studied. In this paper, we further consider the leader‐following attitude consensus problem of multiple rigid uncertain spacecraft systems subject to a class of multi‐tone sinusoidal disturbances with arbitrarily unknown amplitudes, initial phases, frequencies, and constant biases. In contrast to the existing results, in order to achieve asymptotic reference tracking and disturbance rejection by smooth control, we have integrated the distributed observer approach with internal model and adaptive control techniques. Simulation results are shown to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control law. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.