Cooperation attitude control of multiple spacecraft using sliding mode variable structure

This paper focuses on the attitude control for multiple spacecraft. Two decentralized finite-time control laws are proposed when the communication topologies are directed and undirected, respectively. The proposed control schemes rely on the information of angular velocity errors and error quaternions of the neighboring spacecraft which determines the orientation of the torques and reduce the relative errors. Finite-time stabilization of the system is proved by using Lyapunov function and graph theory. Finally, simulation examples are illustrated to validate the approach by different case studies.