A Backstepping Sliding Mode Controller Design for Spacecraft Formation Flying

EasyChair Preprint no. 106

Abstract

In this paper, a backstepping sliding mode controller is developed for tracking control of spacecraft formation flying on elliptical orbits. The controller is designed in accordance with the nonlinear model of relative motion, and combines the advantages of backstepping and sliding mode control techniques. After applying the backstepping method to incorporate the tracking errors and Lyapunov functions, a sliding mode controller is developed to guarantee the Lyapunov stability, handling all nonlinearities, robustness against uncertainties and tracking the desired trajectory. It is supposed that the leader and follower spacecraft are in a low Earth orbit while J2 perturbation and atmospheric drag are considered as external disturbances. The performance of the proposed controller in tracking the desired formation is compared to a sliding mode controller. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Keyphrases: Backstepping, elliptical orbit, Lyapunov second theory, sliding mode control, Spacecraft Formation Flying

@Booklet{EasyChair:106,
  author = {Amin Imani and Mohsen Bahrami and Jafar Roshanian},
  title = {A Backstepping Sliding Mode Controller Design for Spacecraft Formation Flying},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 106},
  doi = {10.29007/8bmq},
  year = {EasyChair, 2018}}