Adaptive and Supertwisting Adaptive Spacecraft Orbit Control Around Asteroids

Abstract

This paper addresses the development of control systems for the orbit control of spacecraft around irregularly shaped rotating asteroids with uncertain parameters. The objective is to steer the spacecraft along prescribed orbits. First, a nonlinear adaptive law for orbit control was designed. This was followed by the design of a supertwisting adaptive (STWA) control system. In the closed-loop system, which includes the adaptive law or the STWA law, all the signals remain bounded, and the trajectory tracking error asymptotically converges to zero for any initial condition. Finally, under the assumption of boundedness of the derivative of the uncertain functions of the model in a region of the state space, a supertwisting control (STW) law for finite-time convergence of the trajectory was obtained. Based on the Lyapunov theory, stability properties of the closed-loop systems were analyzed. Simulation results for 433 Eros and Ida asteroids were presented for illustration. The results showed that control of spacecraft along closed orbits or to a fixed point is accomplished using each of these controllers, despite uncertainties in the parameters of the asteroid models.