Backstepping based adaptive sliding mode control for spacecraft attitude maneuvers

This paper aims to address the robust control problem of rigid spacecraft attitude maneuvers in the presence of inertia matrix uncertainty and external disturbance. A back-stepping based adaptive sliding mode control (B-ASMC) design is proposed as a solution, where the upper bounds of the parametric uncertainty and disturbance are not required in advance. Compared to current adaptive sliding mode control (ASMC) design, the B-ASMC design has two advantages. Theoretically, the asymptotical stability of the attitude states rather than the sliding function is guaranteed. Practically, the over-adaptation problem in current ASMC design is alleviated and the system performance is improved. Detailed design principle and rigorous closed-loop system stability analysis are provided. A large angle attitude maneuver is employed in the numerical simulation to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.