Adaptive sliding-mode control for spacecraft autonomous rendezvous with elliptical orbits and thruster faults

This article studies the problem of spacecraft autonomous rendezvous control for elliptical target orbits with external disturbance and thruster faults. The Clohessy–Wiltshire equation of elliptical target orbits without linearization is employed to describe the relative dynamic model as a linear time-varying system, such that the model errors in traditional linearization modeling methods are avoided. By on-line estimation of thruster faults and external disturbance, an adaptive sliding-mode control scheme is designed to eliminate the effects of the thruster faults and external disturbances, such that the reachability of the proposed integral sliding surface is ensured. Finally, a numerical example is established to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.