Adaptive finite-time tracking control of 6DOF spacecraft motion with inertia parameter identification

This study deals with the problem of relative motion control with 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF) for spacecrafts without a priori knowledge of the inertia parameters. Considering the system natural couplings, the integrated rotational and translational dynamics of the spacecraft are achieved. By a series of first-order filter operations, an expression of the parameter estimation error is derived and then used for the design of an integrated finite-time tracking controller applying adaptive backstepping technique. Proven by the Lyapunov theory, the proposed controller can guarantee that the errors of trajectory tracking and parameter identification simultaneously converge to zero in finite time. Furthermore, to be applied in practice, the controller is adapted for the spacecraft subject to external disturbance and input saturation. Compared with the previous control designs, the proposed control strategy can realise inertia parameter identification together with tracking of command position and attitude in finite time, in the presence of input saturation and external disturbance. The effectiveness of the control law is finally demonstrated by numerical simulations.