Sliding Mode Control for Attitude Tracking of Thruster-Controlled Spacecraft

Nonlinear pulse width modulation(PWM) controlled system is considered to achieve control performance of thruster-controlled spacecraft. The actual PWM controlled motions occurs, very closely, around the average model rajectory. Furthermore nonlinear PWM controller design can be directly applied to thruster controlled spacecraft to determine thruster on-time. Sliding mode control for attitude tracking of three-axis thruster-controlled spacecraft is presented. Simulation results are shown which use modified Rodrigues parameters and sliding mode control law to achieve attitude tracking of a three-axis spacecraft with thrusters.