Mars Powered Descent Phase Guidance Design Based on Fixed-Time Stabilization Technique

• Published in: IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 2001 - 2011
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yao, Vepa, Ranjan, Li, Guang, Zeng, Tianyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acceleration; Computer simulation; Control input saturation; Convergence; disturbance rejection; Disturbances; Fuels; Lyapunov methods; Mars; Mars landing; Mars landing missions; Monte Carlo simulation; multiple sliding surfaces (MSS); powered descent phase; practical fixed-time stabilization; Robustness; Stabilization; Theorems; Time dependence; Trajectory; Upper bounds
• ISSN: 0018-9251; 1557-9603
• DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2018.2880051

This paper proposes a guidance scheme to achieve an autonomous precision landing on Mars and proposes a practical fixed-time stabilization theorem to analyze the robustness of the guidance. The proposed guidance is mainly based on the fixed-time stabilization method, and it can achieve the precision landing within a pre-defined time. This property enables the proposed guidance to outperform the finite-time stabilization technique which cannot handle uncertainties well and whose convergence time is dependent on initial states. Compared with the existing fixed-time stabilization theorem, the proposed practical fixed-time stabilization theorem can achieve a shorter convergence time and cope with unknown disturbances. When the Mars landing guidance is designed by this proposed theorem, the upper bound of the landing time and the maximum landing error subject to unknown disturbances can be calculated in advance. Theoretical proofs and Monte Carlo simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed theorem and the proposed guidance. Furthermore, the efficacy of the proposed guidance with thrust limitations is also demonstrated by testing of 50 cases with a range of initial positions and velocities.