Sliding Mode Control with Chattering Attenuation and Hardware Constraints in Spacecraft Applications

Many practical issues should be considered when synthesizing a control system for real applications. In this paper the main objective is the evaluation of the performance of a Sliding Model Controller (SMC) for spacecraft applications, in which implementation issues are included. The key features of the proposed practical design are: (i) chattering attenuation, in which an hyperbolic tangent is considered, and (ii) hardware constraints, in which a reduced SMC update frequency and saturations on the actuation system are included. A comparison between a first order and a super-twisting SMC is performed, including disturbances on the mathematical model. Moreover, computational effort and error accuracy are evaluated for both the strategies, showing the performance of the proposed implementation solutions.