Finite-time attitude tracking control for rigid spacecraft with control input constraints

• Published in: IET control theory & applications Vol. 11; no. 7; pp. 931 - 940
• Main Authors: Zou, An-Min, de Ruiter, Anton H.J, Kumar, Krishna Dev
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 25.04.2017
• Subjects: Actuators; Angular velocity; angular velocity measurement; Attitude control; control input constraints; control laws; control nonlinearities; finite‐time attitude tracking control; homogeneous method; input magnitude saturation; Mathematical models; Research Article; rigid spacecraft; Saturation; space vehicles; Spacecraft; Spacecraft attitude control; Spacecraft tracking; tracking; actuators; control input constraints; control laws; control nonlinearities; attitude control; homogeneous method; finite-time attitude tracking control; space vehicles; angular velocity measurement; rigid spacecraft; tracking; input magnitude saturation
• ISSN: 1751-8644; 1751-8652
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-cta.2016.1097

This study considers the problem of attitude tracking control for rigid spacecraft subject to control input saturation. To address this problem, a smooth model is first proposed to describe the input magnitude saturation. The output of the model is always in agreement with the constraints imposed by the actuators. Then, two finite-time attitude tracking control schemes are designed based on the model derived here and the homogeneous method. The measurement of angular velocity is required in the first scheme while it is relaxed in the second one. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control laws is illustrated by numerical simulations.