Global fast terminal sliding mode control for automatic carrier landing with environmental disturbances

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to solve the challenging problem of automatic carrier landing with the presence of environmental disturbances. Therefore, a global fast terminal sliding mode control (GFTSMC) method is proposed for automatic carrier landing system (ACLS) to achieve safe carrier landing control. Design/methodology/approach: First, the framework of ACLS is established, which includes flight glide path model, guidance model, approach power compensation system and flight controller model. Subsequently, the carrier deck motion model and carrier air-wake model are presented to simulate the environmental disturbances. Then, the detailed design steps of GFTSMC are provided. The stability analysis of the controller is proved by Lyapunov theorems and LaSalle’s invariance principle. Furthermore, the arrival time analysis is carried out, which proves the controller has fixed time convergence ability. Findings: The numerical simulations are conducted. The simulation results reveal that the proposed method can guarantee a finite convergence time and safe carrier landing under various conditions. And the superiority of the proposed method is further demonstrated by comparative simulations and Monte Carlo tests. Originality/value: The GFTSMC method proposed in this paper can achieve precise and safe carrier landing with environmental disturbances, which has important referential significance to the improvement of ACLS controller designs.