Adaptive Sliding Mode Control for Spacecraft Proximity Operations

Abstract

The high precision control problem of a pursuer spacecraft approaching a space target in proximity missions is investigated in this paper. By choosing proper sliding mode surfaces, a novel adaptive sliding mode controller is presented in presence of model uncertainties and unknown external disturbances. It is proved that the relative position and attitude errors of the closed-loop system asymptotically converge to zero. The validity of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated by numerical simulation results.