Finite-time attitude tracking control for spacecraft with uncertain actuator configuration

The issue of attitude tracking control with finite-time convergence is investigated for spacecraft in the presence of external disturbance and uncertain actuator configuration as well. More specifically, in view of backstepping technique, the attitude quaternion can firstly track the demanded command in finite time under the virtual control law by introducing a novel terminal sliding manifold. Then, the finite-time convergence to the sliding mode of the angular velocity error will be achieved under the proposed novel finite-time control and a parameter updating law, even under uncertain actuator misalignment. In addition, the finite-time stabilization/convergence of the sliding surface and the spacecraft attitude tracking error have been proved and analyzed using the Lyapunov method theoretically. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme. © IMechE 2015