Adaptive finite time control for spacecraft attitude maneuver based on second-order terminal sliding mode

An adaptive fuzzy second-order terminal sliding mode control scheme is developed to solve the problem of rigid spacecraft attitude maneuver in which the external disturbances and uncertain inertia parameters as well as actuator faults are explicitly taken into account. The proposed controller incorporates a second-order terminal sliding mode to obtain finite time convergent performance as well as chattering elimination, meanwhile the fuzzy logical system is implemented to estimate the system uncertainties of the rigid spacecraft. Lyapunov stability analysis shows that the designed control algorithm guarantees the practical finite time stability of the attitude maneuver errors with great robustness to system uncertainties and actuator faults. Numerical simulations are also presented that not only highlights closed-loop performance benefits from the proposed control algorithm, but also illustrates its effectiveness in the presence of disturbances and uncertainties when compared with classic finite time sliding mode control schemes for spacecraft attitude maneuver control.