Continuous Twisting Sliding Mode Control for Spacecraft Attitude Maneuver

This paper devises a strategy to reduce the chattering in second order sliding mode control designed for anti-unwinding attitude stabilization for a rigid spacecraft. To represent the attitude kinematics the unit quaternion is applied. Firstly, an integral type sliding output function is defined and then, a chattering-free attitude control law is developed in second order sliding mode using a continuous twisting type control. The proposed controller aims to ensure finite time convergence to equilibrium and limit the chattering. Numerical simulation is conducted with external disturbances applied to check the proposed control effectiveness. The simulation results confirm the proposed controller efficacy.