Finite-Time Attitude Tracking Control of Spacecraft with Actuator Saturation

The attitude tracking control problem of a rigid spacecraft with actuator saturation is investigated in this paper. A finite-time attitude tracking control scheme is presented by incorporating sliding mode control (SMC) and adaptive technique. Specifically, a novel time-varying sliding mode manifold is first developed that aims at regulating the attitude tracking error to equilibrium point within a certain finite time. Moreover, it can be specified a priori by the designer according to the mission requirement. Subsequently, an adaptive controller is derived by using the SMC in conjunction with adaptive technique. The designed controller is capable of ensuring that the state trajectories reach to sliding regime within a finite time, and hence that attitude tracking error can converge to zero in a finite time with the aid of the developed sliding dynamics, despite the presence of exogenous disturbances, unknown inertia properties and saturation nonlinearities. Finally, the simulation experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.