Antiwindup Terminal Sliding Mode Control for Mars Entry Using Supertwisting Sliding Mode Disturbance Observer

Abstract

Uncertainty and external disturbance during the Mars entry process inevitably degrade the performance of Mars entry guidance and control algorithms. Traditional approaches focus on suppressing disturbances and compensating uncertainties, which usually results in larger control responses beyond the limited control capability of a Mars entry vehicle. This paper further takes the limited actuator ability into consideration and proposes the Mars entry robust attitude control strategy using the terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) with antiwindup (AW) and a supertwisting sliding mode disturbance observer (SMDO). First, terminal sliding mode control with antiwindup is developed to robustly track the nominal attitude command under uncertainty and limited control capability. Then, the supertwisting sliding mode disturbance observer is introduced to online estimate the disturbances and further enhance the attitude control accuracy and robustness. Finally, the comparison simulation results illustrate that the proposed control strategy not only performs well in tracking the reference commands even in the presence of uncertain disturbance, but also avoids the control saturation issue.