Super twisting controller for on-orbit servicing to non-cooperative target

A relative position and attitude coupled controller is proposed for rendezvous and docking between two docking ports located in different spacecraft. It is concerned with servicing to a tumbling non-cooperative target spacecraft in arbitrary orbit subjected to external disturbances. By considering both kinematic and dynamical coupled effects of relative rotation on relative translation, a coupled dynamic model is established to represent the relative motion of docking port on target spacecraft with respect to another on the service spacecraft. The spacecraft control is based on the second order sliding mode algorithm of super twisting (ST). It is schemed to manipulate the relative position and attitude synchronously. A formal proof of the finite time convergence property of the closed-loop system is derived theoretically by the second method of Lyapunov. Numerical simulations with the designed ST controller are presented to validate the analytic analysis by contrast with the twisting control algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed relative position and attitude integrated controller is characterized by high precision, strong robustness and high reliability.