Global finite-time attitude tracking via quaternion feedback

Abstract

This paper addresses the attitude tracking of a rigid body using a quaternion description. Global finite-time attitude controllers are designed with three types of measurements, namely, full states, attitude plus constant-biased angular velocity, and attitude only. In all three scenarios hybrid control techniques are utilized to overcome the well-known topological constraint on the attitude manifold, while coupled nonsmooth feedback inputs are designed via homogeneous theory to achieve finitetime stability. Specially, a finite-time bias observer is derived in the second scenario and a quaternion filter is constructed to provide damping in the absence of velocity feedback. The proposed methods ensure bounded control torques a priori and, in particular, include several existing attitude controllers as special cases.

Fixed‐time attitude tracking control for spacecraft based on adding power integrator technique

“…In comparison with most of the finite‐time attitude controllers that are based on the conventional concept of finite‐time stability, such as the homogeneous attitude controllers, the terminal sliding mode attitude controllers, and the “AAPIC” attitude controllers, two novel attitude controllers are designed based on the concept of “fixed‐time stability,” which can be seen as a special case of finite‐time stability Compared with most of the existing fixed‐time attitude controllers that are designed based on the TSMC, such as those in References , the two proposed fixed‐time controllers are designed based on the AAPIC. In comparison with the research results related to finite‐time attitude control, such as those in , this study further considers the case where external disturbance and thruster faults exist. Moreover, compared with many discontinuous finite‐time controllers, the two proposed controllers are continuous. …”

“…(1) In comparison with most of the finite-time attitude controllers that are based on the conventional concept of finite-time stability, such as the homogeneous attitude controllers, [28][29][30] the terminal sliding mode attitude controllers, 13,14,31,32 and the "AAPIC" attitude controllers, 12,33 two novel attitude controllers are designed based on the concept of "fixed-time stability," which can be seen as a special case of finite-time stability. 23 (2) Compared with most of the existing fixed-time attitude controllers that are designed based on the TSMC, such as those in References 24-27, the two proposed fixed-time controllers are designed based on the AAPIC.…”

Global finite-time attitude consensus of leader-following spacecraft systems based on distributed observers

“…In order to estimate the leader's states for each follower, a novel nonlinear distributed observer is designed such that finitetime convergence is guaranteed only if at least one follower connects to the leader. Following this, the hybrid homogeneous attitude controllers developed in [20] are extended and then applied together with the distributed observer to perform consensus control by establishing a separation principle [21]. More precisely, the resultant consensus laws can restore the uniformly globally finite-time stable systems of [20], in both the full-state measurement case and attitude-only measurement case, where the latter relies on a quaternion filter to inject the necessary damping instead of velocity feedback.…”

“…Following this, the hybrid homogeneous attitude controllers developed in [20] are extended and then applied together with the distributed observer to perform consensus control by establishing a separation principle [21]. More precisely, the resultant consensus laws can restore the uniformly globally finite-time stable systems of [20], in both the full-state measurement case and attitude-only measurement case, where the latter relies on a quaternion filter to inject the necessary damping instead of velocity feedback. As a result, the proposed control schemes avoid the unwinding problem arXiv:1707.08076v2 [math.OC] 11 Dec 2017 and achieve global finite-time attitude consensus which, to the best of the our knowledge, has not been reported in existing cooperative attitude control literature.…”

Adaptive fault‐tolerant spacecraft attitude control using a novel integral terminal sliding mode

“…Such an unnecessarily large‐angle slew will consume a considerable amount of control energy. To overcome this problem, discontinuous control techniques were introduced in . Another approach allows continuous control laws but introduces multiple equilibria other than the desired attitude into the closed‐loop system.…”