A continuous finite-time attitude synchronization approach for spacecraft formations with communication delays

Synchronizing the attitude of formation flying spacecraft is an essential ingredient in almost all practical situations. However, thus far control schemes with finite-time convergent property have not been proposed for synchronizing the attitude of multiple spacecraft in the presence of communication delays. In this paper, a class of finite-time control schemes is developed to guarantee spacecraft attitude synchronization in the presence of communication delays, parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. Robustness, high tracking precision and finite-time convergence can be achieved simultaneously by the proposed control strategy despite the existence of these unexpected phenomena. The proposed control approach, which is based on an improved version of sliding mode control method, is continuous and so is chattering-free. Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.