Dual-Quaternion-Based Fault-Tolerant Control for Spacecraft Tracking With Finite-Time Convergence

Results are presented for a study of dual-quaternion-based fault-tolerant control for spacecraft tracking. First, a six-degrees-of-freedom dynamic model under a dual-quaternion-based description is employed to describe the relative coupled motion of a target-pursuer spacecraft tracking system. Then, a novel fault-tolerant control method is proposed to enable the pursuer to track the attitude and the position of the target even though its actuators have multiple faults. Furthermore, based on a novel time-varying sliding manifold, finite-time stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically guaranteed, and the convergence time of the system can be given explicitly. Multiple-task capability of the proposed control law is further demonstrated in the presence of disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed control method.