Nonlinear attitude tracking control for spacecraft formation with multiple delays

This paper addresses the attitude tracking control for spacecraft formation with delay free and communication delays. With help of the idea of sliding control, an adaptive attitude synchronization control architecture is established. Furthermore, by introducing a nonsmooth feedback function, a new class of nonlinear controllers for the attitude tracking of spacecraft is developed. Both parameter uncertainties and unknown external disturbances are dealt with via the kind of controllers. Finally, some simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed results. (C) 2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.