Aerospace Sliding Mode Control Toolbox: Relative Degree Approach with Resource Prospector Lander and Launch Vehicle Case Studies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a MATLAB toolbox for aerospace sliding mode control, supporting various control strategies and validated through lunar lander and launch vehicle case studies.

Contribution

It presents a novel aerospace sliding mode control toolbox using the relative degree approach, including libraries for multiple control techniques and differentiators.

Findings

Successful simulation of lunar lander soft landing

Effective attitude control of launch vehicle during ascent

Validation of toolbox across different aerospace scenarios

Abstract

Conventional Sliding mode control and observation techniques are widely used in aerospace applications, including aircrafts, UAVs, launch vehicles, missile interceptors, and hypersonic missiles. This work is dedicated to creating a MATLAB-based sliding mode controller design and simulation software toolbox that aims to support aerospace vehicle applications. An architecture of the aerospace sliding mode control toolbox (SMC Aero) using the relative degree approach is proposed. The SMC Aero libraries include 1st order sliding mode control (1-SMC), second order sliding mode control (2-SMC), higher order sliding mode (HOSM) control (either fixed gain or adaptive), as well as higher order sliding mode differentiators. The efficacy of the SMC Aero toolbox is confirmed in two case studies: controlling and simulating resource prospector lander (RPL) soft landing on the Moon and launch vehicle (LV) attitude control in ascent mode.