Fixed-Time Fault-Tolerant Attitude Tracking Control for Rigid Spacecraft

Abstract

This paper addresses the fixed-time attitude tracking problem of rigid spacecraft with inertial uncertainties, external disturbances, and partial loss of actuator effectiveness faults. A new fixed-time terminal sliding surface is proposed and a singularity-free fixed-time fault-tolerant sliding mode control (FTSMC) is designed. It is proved that the proposed FTSMC can ensure that the attitude tracking errors converge to an arbitrary small bound centered on the equilibrium point within fixed time and then go to the equilibrium point asymptotically. The appealing features of the proposed control are fixed-time tracking stability featuring fast convergence, high precision, and strong robustness. Simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.