Distributed finite-time attitude coordinated tracking control for multiple spacecraft systems

Based on the consensus algorithm, a distributed finite-time attitude coordinated tracking control is proposed for multiple spacecraft systems with state constraint under the directed communication topology. A model-independent distributed finite-time attitude coordinated control algorithm is proposed by using the fast terminal sliding mode in the case that the leader spacecraft may only be available to a part of the follower spacecraft and/or with an incomplete information exchange among the follower spacecraft. The proposed control algorithm can guarantee that the follower spacecraft attitudes and angular velocities converge to a neighborhood of the leader spacecraft state in finite time based on the finite time Lyapunov theory. Simulation results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm.