Time-Synchronized Control for Spacecraft Reorientation With Time-Varying Constraints

This article proposes a time-synchronized constrained controller to address the time-varying constrained reorientation problem in spacecraft attitude operations. The characteristics of time-varying attitude constraints are formulated and analyzed. The corresponding artificial potential field-based sliding mode surface is tailored for these constraints. This method utilizes the properties of time-synchronized stability to thoroughly contemplate the interrelationships among different state errors, enabling the synchronized convergence of individual error components while ensuring compliance with state constraints. This design leads to an increase in control efficiency compared with traditional sliding mode-based constrained attitude controllers without adding any computational burden. This efficiency is evident in terms of control energy consumption and convergence time. Theoretical analysis is presented to substantiate the rationality of the proposed method. To validate these advantages, the article conducts diverse numerical simulation analyses and designs corresponding hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) experiments to verify its practical deployment capabilities.