Robust tracking for hypersonic vehicles subjected to mismatched uncertainties via fixed-time sliding mode control

This article investigates the robust tracking issue for the longitudinal dynamics of hypersonic vehicles subjected to mismatched uncertainties, and a novel sliding mode control approach is proposed to achieve the fixed-time convergence of tracking errors and satisfactory robustness against mismatched uncertainties. Establishing the control-oriented hypersonic vehicle model as velocity and altitude subsystems with mismatched uncertainties, the article introduces the nonlinear finite-time disturbance observer technique to estimate the uncertainties precisely. With the estimated uncertainties from the observer, the fixed-time sliding mode control is presented to track the velocity and altitude references. Consequently, the effect of the mismatched disturbances can be eliminated and the tracking performance can be improved. The stability of the closed-loop system is also analyzed. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the validity and superiority of the proposed control.