Adaptive sliding mode disturbance observer-based control for rendezvous with non-cooperative spacecraft

• Published in: Acta astronautica Vol. 183; pp. 59 - 74
• Main Authors: Zhu, Xiaoyu, Chen, Junli, Zhu, Zheng H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Adaptive control; Adaptive sliding mode; Control stability; Disturbance; Disturbance observer; Disturbance observers; Kinematics; Non-cooperative spacecraft; Numerical simulations; Orbital dynamics; Quaternions; Rendezvous; Robustness (mathematics); Sliding mode control; Space rendezvous; Spacecraft; Tracking control; Tumbling; Upper bounds; Adaptive sliding mode; Disturbance observer; Non-cooperative spacecraft; Rendezvous; Orbital dynamics
• ISSN: 0094-5765; 1879-2030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.03.005

This paper investigates the tracking and control problem of a spacecraft rendezvous with a non-cooperative and tumbling space target subject to parametric uncertainty and unknown external disturbances. The kinematics and dynamics of spacecraft position and attitude are described by dual quaternions. A novel adaptive sliding mode disturbance observer is proposed to track the pose of non-cooperative tumbling target without need for upper bounds of first and second derivatives of lumped disturbance. Based on the proposed observer, a finite time sliding mode control is developed in term of dual quaternion. Different from existing sliding mode control schemes, the conditions on the controller parameters bounds are relaxed. The stability and robustness of the overall closed-loop control is proved by the Lyapunov framework. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme are validated by numerical simulations in comparison with existing approaches. •Track and control of spacecraft rendezvous with non-cooperative and tumbling targets.•Adaptive sliding mode disturbance observer.•Dual quaternion description of kinematics and dynamics of spacecraft.