Velocity-free fixed-time attitude tracking fault-tolerant control for rigid spacecraft based on the homogeneity method

This paper examines the problem of fixed-time attitude tracking fault-tolerant for rigid spacecraft without angular velocity measurement, in the presence of uncertainties, external disturbances, and actuator faults. First, a fixed-time observer is established to obtain accurate estimates of the unmeasurable angular velocities, by applying a fixed-time observer, a fixed-time tracking control method is addressed to enable the tracking spacecraft to track the target spacecraft with time-varying attitude in a fixed time. A fixed-time output feedback attitude tracking controller is designed and the fixed time stability of the system is proved. In addition, the simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.