Adaptive variable structure output feedback maneuvering control for flexible spacecraft with input constraints

This paper is concerned with attitude maneuvering control of a flexible spacecraft in the presence of uncertainty/external disturbances as well as control input saturation, To satisfy pointing requirements and simultaneously suppress vibrations, an adaptive output feedback sliding mode control (AOFSMC) was design, in which control input saturation is explicitly taken into consideration. The controller has the ability to reject the disturbance, deal with uncertainty and to ensure that the system trajectories globally converge to the sliding mode. To study the effectiveness of the corresponding control scheme, the traditional proportional-derivate (PD) and adaptive static output feedback control (ASOF) case is also developed for the control system. Both analytical and numerical results are presented to show the theoretical and practical merit of this approach.