Global saturated velocity-free finite-time control for attitude tracking of spacecraft

• Published in: IET control theory & applications Vol. 13; no. 11; pp. 1591 - 1602
• Main Authors: Xia, Yuquan, Su, Yuxin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 23.07.2019
• Subjects: actuator constraints; actuators; aircraft control; asymptotic stability; attitude control; attitude measurements; control gains; finite‐time attitude tracking; global saturated velocity‐free finite‐time control; hybrid control technique; Lyapunov methods; lyapunov stability theory; PD control; Research Article; space vehicles; spacecraft subject; variable structure systems; velocity control; velocity measurements; velocity‐free saturated hybrid proportional–derivative plus spacecraft dynamics control; lyapunov stability theory; space vehicles; aircraft control; asymptotic stability; PD control; finite-time attitude tracking; hybrid control technique; velocity control; velocity measurements; global saturated velocity-free finite-time control; actuators; attitude control; actuator constraints; velocity-free saturated hybrid proportional–derivative plus spacecraft dynamics control; attitude measurements; spacecraft subject; variable structure systems; control gains; Lyapunov methods
• ISSN: 1751-8644; 1751-8652
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-cta.2018.5952

This study investigates the problem of global finite-time attitude tracking for spacecraft subject to actuator constraints and attitude measurements only. A velocity-free saturated hybrid proportional–derivative (PD) plus spacecraft dynamics (PD+) control is proposed. Benefiting from the hybrid control technique, the unwinding phenomenon is completely avoided and the global stability is achieved. Lyapunov stability theory and homogeneous method are employed to show global finite-time tracking. Advantages of the proposed control include simple and intuitive structure and the absence of velocity measurements, and thus it is ready to implement. An additive feature is that the proposed control is explicitly upper bounded and hence it can assure that actuator constraints will not be violated by selecting the control gains a priori. Simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness and improved performance of the proposed approach.