Reaction wheel fault‐tolerant finite‐time control for spacecraft attitude tracking without unwinding

This article proposes fault‐tolerant finite‐time attitude tracking control of a rigid spacecraft actuated by four reaction wheels without unwinding problem in the presence of external disturbances, uncertain inertia parameter, and actuator faults. First, a novel antiunwinding finite‐time attitude tracking control law is derived with a designed control signal which works within a known actuator‐magnitude constraint using a continuous nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode (NFTSM) concept. Second, a finite‐time disturbance observer (FTDO) is introduced to estimate a lumped disturbance due to external disturbances, uncertain inertia parameter, actuator faults, and input saturation. Third, a composite controller is developed which consists of a feedback control based on the continuous NFTSM method and compensation term based on the FTDO. The global finite‐time stability is proved using Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, the singularity and unwinding phenomenon are avoided. Simulation results are conducted under actuator constraints in the presence of external disturbances, inertia uncertainty, and actuator faults and results are illustrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. In addition, to show the superiority of the proposed control method over the recently reported control methods, comparative analysis is also presented.     

航天器姿态跟踪系统的自适应滑模控制

针对存在不确定惯量矩阵和外干扰的刚体航天器姿态跟踪系统,提出了一种自适应滑模控制方法。首先建立了姿态跟踪误差动力学方程,并对刚体航天器跟踪误差动力学定义了滑模,设计了自适应滑模控制律,该控制律的优点在于可以估计系统不确定块,消除了传统滑模控制中对不确定界的要求。Lyapunov分析表明了提出的自适应滑模控制器确保闭环系统取得渐近稳定性。仿真结果验证了提出的控制策略的有效性。     

航天器自适应快速非奇异终端滑模容错控制

针对存在外部干扰、转动惯量矩阵不确定以及执行器故障的航天器姿态跟踪控制问题,本文提出了基于自适应快速非奇异终端滑模的有限时间收敛故障容错控制方案.通过引入能够避免奇异点,且具有有限时间收敛特性的快速非奇异终端滑模面,设计了满足多约束条件有限时间收敛的姿态跟踪容错控制律,利用参数自适应方法使控制器不依赖转动惯量和外部干扰的上界信息.Lyapunov稳定性分析表明:在存在外部干扰、转动惯量矩阵不确定以及执行器故障等约束条件下,本文设计的控制律能够保证闭环系统的快速收敛性,而且对执行器故障具有良好的容错性能.数值仿真校验了该控制律在姿态跟踪控制中的优良性能.     

Adaptive multivariable finite‐time continuous fault‐tolerant control of rigid spacecraft

The problem of fault‐tolerant attitude tracking control for rigid spacecraft in the presence of inertia uncertainties, actuator faults, and external disturbances is investigated in this paper. A novel adaptive finite‐time continuous fault‐tolerant control strategy is developed by combining the fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode surface and the adaptive multivariable super‐twisting algorithm, which improves the robustness while preserving high accuracy and finite‐time convergence. The main features of the control strategy are the double‐layer adaptive algorithm based on equivalent control, which ensures nonoverestimation of the control gain and the continuous controller, which maintains better property of chattering reduction. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed controller is illustrated by numerical simulations.     

Robust adaptive fixed‐time tracking control of 6‐DOF spacecraft fly‐around mission for noncooperative target

The fixed‐time relative position tracking and attitude synchronization control problem of a spacecraft fly‐around mission for a noncooperative target in the presence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances is investigated. Firstly, a novel and coupled relative position and attitude motion model for a noncooperative fly‐around mission is established. Subsequently, a novel nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode (NFTSM) surface is developed, and the explicit estimation of the convergence time independent of initial states is provided. Fair and systematic comparisons among several typical terminal sliding modes show that the designed NFTSM has faster convergence performance than the fast terminal sliding mode. Then, a robust integrated adaptive fixed‐time NFTSM control law with no precise knowledge of the mass and inertia matrix and disturbances by combining the nonsingular terminal sliding mode technique with an adaptive methodology is proposed, which can eliminate the chattering phenomenon and guarantee that the relative position and attitude tracking errors can converge into the small regions containing the origin in fixed time. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.     

Nonsingular terminal sliding mode based finite-time control for spacecraft attitude tracking

This paper studies finite-time attitude tracking control problem of a rigid spacecraft system with external disturbances and inertia uncertainties. Firstly, a new finite-time attitude tracking control law is designed using nonsingular terminal sliding mode concepts. In the absence and presence of external disturbances and inertia uncertainties, this controller can drive the attitude and angular velocity tracking errors to reach zero in finite time. Secondly, a finite-time disturbance observer is introduced to estimate the disturbance, and a composite controller is developed which consists of a feedback control based on nonsingular terminal sliding mode method and compensation term based on finite-time disturbance observer. Finite-time convergence of attitude tracking errors and the stability of the closed-loop system is ensured by the Lyapunov approach. Numerical simulations on attitude control of spacecraft are also given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed controllers.     

Adaptive fault‐tolerant spacecraft attitude control using a novel integral terminal sliding mode

The attitude tracking of a rigid spacecraft is approached in the presence of uncertain inertias, unknown disturbances, and sudden actuator faults. First, a novel integral terminal sliding mode (ITSM) is designed such that the sliding motion realizes the action of a quaternion‐based nonlinear proportional‐derivative controller. More precisely, on the ITSM, the attitude dynamics behave equivalently to an uncertainty‐free system, and finite‐time convergence of the tracking error is achieved almost globally. A basic ITSM controller is then designed to ensure the ITSM from onset when an upper bound on the system uncertainties is known. Further, to remove this requirement, adaptive techniques are employed to compensate for the uncertainties, and the resultant adaptive ITSM controller stabilizes the system states to a small neighborhood around the sliding surface in finite time. The proposed schemes avoid the singularity intrinsic to terminal sliding mode‐based controllers and the unwinding phenomenon associated with some quaternion‐based controllers. Numerical examples demonstrate the advantageous features of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inertia‐free attitude stabilization for flexible spacecraft with active vibration suppression

This paper addresses the inertia‐free attitude control problem for flexible spacecraft in the presence of inertia uncertainties, external disturbances, actuator faults, measurement errors, and input magnitude and rate constraints (MRCs). By analyzing the influence of external disturbances, faulty signals, and actual inertial matrix, a lumped disturbance is reconstructed to facilitate the controller design. Then, a new intermediate observer is developed to estimate the attitude and modal information and the lumped disturbance. The Lyapunov stability analysis shows that the developed controller can achieve the objectives of the attitude stabilization and vibration suppression with input MRCs. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control method.     

Attitude stabilization of rigid spacecraft with finite‐time convergence

The problem of attitude control for a spacecraft model which is nonlinear in dynamics with inertia uncertainty and external disturbance is investigated in this paper. Two sliding mode controllers are proposed to force the state variables of the closed‐loop system to converge to the origin in finite time. Specially, the second control design consists of the estimation of the uncertainty and disturbance by adaptive method and thus it achieves the decrease of undesired chattering effectively. Also, simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the control strategies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Third‐order sliding mode fault‐tolerant control for satellites based on iterative learning observer

The attitude fault‐tolerant control problem for a satellite with reaction‐wheel failures, uncertainties, and unknown external disturbances is investigated in this paper. Firstly, an iterative learning observer (ILO) is proposed to achieve fault detection, isolation, and estimation. Secondly, based on the ILO, a third‐order sliding mode controller is proposed to stabilize the satellite attitude rapidly under unknown external disturbances and reaction‐wheel faults. Thirdly, the asymptotically stability of the ILO and the third‐order sliding mode controller is proved by using the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme is more effective and feasible by comparing with other fault‐tolerant control approach.     

Robust stabilization of spacecraft attitude motion under magnetic control through time‐varying integral sliding mode

Magnetic spacecraft attitude control is suitable for missions with moderate pointing and stabilization requirements. It would be especially preferable if an implemented three‐axis magnetic control law guarantees global and moreover robust stabilization. Motivated by this consideration, in this work, the integral sliding mode control method is successfully applied to the purely magnetic attitude control problem for the first time in literature. The resulting magnetic integral sliding mode control system, which is designed via Lyapunov's direct method by taking the four major environmental disturbance torques and the full inertia matrix uncertainty into account, has the expected insensitivity against environmental disturbances in the plane of continuous actuation. Along the instantaneous direction of underactuation, which continuously varies in control space as the satellite moves along the orbit, there is no counteraction to perturbations. However, as seen in the results of the high‐fidelity simulation, state trajectories are ultimately bounded in the vicinity of the reference state independently from the initial state thanks to the proven robustness of the global stability. Performance robustness of the obtained control system against disturbances and model uncertainty is evaluated to be superior through a couple of comparisons with existing control laws even though it is partial due to the intrinsic underactuation in the system.     

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.     

Finite‐Time Sliding Mode Trajectory Tracking Control of Uncertain Mechanical Systems

The problem of finite‐time tracking control is studied for uncertain nonlinear mechanical systems. To achieve finite‐time convergence of tracking errors, a simple linear sliding surface based on polynomial reference trajectory is proposed to enable the trajectory tracking errors to converge to zero in a finite time, which is assigned arbitrarily in advance. The sliding mode control technique is employed in the development of the finite‐time controller to guarantee the excellent robustness of the closed‐loop system. The proposed sliding mode scheme eliminates the reaching phase problem, so that the closed‐loop system always holds the invariance property to parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. Lyapunov stability analysis is performed to show the global finite‐time convergence of the tracking errors. A numerical example of a rigid spacecraft attitude tracking problem demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

Finite‐time attitude stabilization for rigid spacecraft

This paper investigates the finite‐time attitude stabilization problem for rigid spacecraft in the presence of inertia uncertainties and external disturbances. Three nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) controllers are designed to make the spacecraft system converge to its equilibrium point or a region around its equilibrium point in finite time. In addition, these novel controllers are singularity‐free, and the presented adaptive NTSM control (ANTSMC) laws are chattering‐free. A rigorous proof of finite‐time convergence is developed. The proposed ANTSMC algorithms combine NTSM, adaptation and a constant plus power rate reaching law. Because the algorithms require no information about inertia uncertainties and external disturbances, they can be used in practical systems, where such knowledge is typically unavailable. Simulation results support the theoretical analysis.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inverse optimal sliding mode control of spacecraft with coupled translation and attitude dynamics

This paper proposes two robust inverse optimal control schemes for spacecraft with coupled translation and attitude dynamics in the presence of external disturbances. For the first controller, an inverse optimal control law is designed based on Sontag-type formula and the control Lyapunov function. Then a robust inverse optimal position and attitude controller is designed by using a new second-order integral sliding mode control method to combine a sliding mode control with the derived inverse optimal control. The global asymptotic stability of the proposed control law is proved by using the second method of Lyapunov. For the other control law, a nonlinear H_∞ inverse optimal controller for spacecraft position and attitude tracking motion is developed to achieve the design conditions of controller gains that the control law becomes suboptimal H_∞ state feedback control. The ultimate boundedness of system state is proved by using the Lyapunov stability theory. Both developed robust inverse optimal controllers can minimise a performance index and ensure the stability of the closed-loop system and external disturbance attenuation. An example of position and attitude tracking manoeuvres is presented and simulation results are included to show the performance of the proposed controllers.     

Output feedback second order sliding mode control for spacecraft attitude and translation motion

This paper studies an output feedback control problem for spacecraft position and attitude control when uncertainties related to system parameters and external disturbances are present. Firstly, a new finite-time control law is designed using second order sliding mode concepts. In the presence of external disturbances and inertia uncertainties, the new control law provides finite-time convergence and high tracking precision. Secondly, a new sliding-mode-based filter is developed to estimate the first time derivatives of attitude and position in finite time. Instead of the translational and angular velocity variables, the estimated derivative values are used for the controller design. The proposed controller with this filter is an output feedback controller since translational and angular velocity measurements are not required. The closed-loop system under this controller is non-homogeneous and the stability is proven by using concepts of a strong Lyapunov function and Lyapunov stability theory. The trajectories of the closed-loop system can be controlled to converge to a ball centered at the origin that can be made as small as desired. Numerical simulations of position and attitude control of spacecraft are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed controller and filter.     

Adaptive fixed‐time fault‐tolerant control for rigid spacecraft using a double power reaching law

In this paper, an adaptive fixed‐time fault‐tolerant control scheme is presented for rigid spacecraft with inertia uncertainties and external disturbances. By using an inverse trigonometric function, a novel double power reaching law is constructed to speed up the state stabilization and reduce the chattering phenomenon simultaneously. Then, an adaptive fixed‐time fault‐tolerant controller is developed for the spacecraft with the actuator faults, such that the fixed‐time convergence of the attitude and angular velocity could be guaranteed, and no prior knowledge on the upper bound of the lumped uncertainties is required anymore in the controller design. Comparative simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and superior performance of the proposed scheme.     

Distributed attitude synchronization control for multiple flexible spacecraft without modal variable measurement

This paper solves the attitude synchronization and tracking problem for a group of flexible spacecraft without flexible‐mode variable measurement. The spacecraft formation is studied in a leader‐following synchronization scheme with a dynamic virtual leader. With the application of adaptive sliding‐mode control technique, a distributed modified Rodriguez parameters‐based dynamic controller is proposed for flexible spacecraft without requiring modal variable measurement. It is proved that the attitude synchronization and tracking can be achieved asymptotically under the control strategy through the Lyapunov's stability analysis. Furthermore, a distributed robust continuous control algorithm is designed to guarantee the ultimate boundedness of both the attitude tracking error and the modal variable observation error when bounded external disturbances exist. Some numerical simulation examples for multiple flexible spacecraft formation are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Finite-time attitude tracking control for a rigid spacecraft using time-varying terminal sliding mode techniques

This paper investigates the finite-time attitude tracking control for a rigid spacecraft in the presence of inertia uncertainties and external disturbances. Two novel time-varying terminal sliding mode control algorithms are derived for attitude tracking control system. The proposed two control algorithms not only eliminate the reaching phase of the conventional sliding mode control but also guarantee the tracking errors converge to zero in finite time. Moreover, the singularity problem can be avoided. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design methods.     

基于super-twisting算法的多航天器姿态有限时间分布式协同控制

针对受外界干扰和执行器故障影响的多航天器姿态协同控制问题,本文设计了一种基于干扰观测器的分布式协同supper-twisting滑模控制器.首先,将各航天器的外界干扰和执行器故障看作一个集总干扰,设计自适应滑模干扰观测器对其进行估计.其次,将supper-twisting算法和积分滑模面相结合,设计一种基于多航天器姿态...