Terminal Sliding Mode Control for Spatial Descent of a Stratospheric Airship

Addressing the problem of spatial descending control with wind disturbance, this paper presents a spatial path following controller of the stratospheric airship based on the theories of three-dimensional vector field guidance and terminal sliding mode control. Firstly, the nonlinear under-actuated stratospheric airship model is presented. Secondly, the three-dimensional vector field guidance law is designed to calculate real-time desired attitudes of the stratospheric airship for the purpose of guiding the stratospheric airship to follow the desired path. Thirdly, the terminal sliding mode controller is designed to control the airship to follow the desired attitudes. Finally, simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.