Time Efficient Rate Feedback Tracking Controller with Slew Rate and Control Constraint

TL;DR

This paper introduces a time-efficient attitude-tracking controller that guarantees finite-time stability while respecting slew rate and control constraints, validated through satellite scenarios.

Contribution

It presents a novel control algorithm that combines sliding surface design with constraint satisfaction for attitude tracking.

Findings

Controller achieves finite-time stability.

Slew rate and control constraints are effectively satisfied.

Validated on Earth observation satellite scenarios.

Abstract

This paper proposes a time-efficient attitude-tracking controller considering the slew rate constraint and control constraint. The algorithm defines the sliding surface, which is the linear combination of command, body, and regulating angular velocity, and utilizes the sliding surface to derive the control command that guarantees finite time stability. The regulating rate, which is an angular velocity regulating the attitude error between the command and body frame, is defined along the instantaneous eigen-axis between the two frames to minimize the rotation angle. In addition, the regulating rate is shaped such that the slew rate constraint is satisfied while the time to regulation is minimized with consideration of the control constraint. Practical scenarios involving Earth observation satellites are used to validate the algorithm's performance.