Decentralized finite time attitude synchronization control of satellite formation flying

This paper investigates a quaternion-based finite time attitude synchronization and stabilization problem for satellite formation flying. Sufficient conditions are presented for finite time boundness and stability of this distributed consensus problem. More specifically, a nonlinear control law based on a finite time control technique is developed such that the attitude of the rigid spacecraft will coordinate and converge to the attitude of the leader, while the angular velocity will converge to zero in finite time. The associated stability proof is constructive and accomplished by adding a power integrator term in the Lyapunov function. Furthermore, to reduce the heavy communication burden, a modified control law is then designed by introducing a finite time sliding-mode estimator such that only one satellite has to communicate with the leader. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed scheme, especially the potential advantages derived through the inclusion of the continuous finite time control method, such as the fast convergent rate and the alleviation of chattering.