Sliding-Mode Control for On-Orbit Rendezvous with a Fleeing Passive Target on a Circular Capture Trajectory

This paper deals with the design of finite-time controllers for on-orbit rendezvous and capture missions. The objective is to assess the capacity of sliding–mode controllers to control a chaser spacecraft during a capture maneuver of a fleeing passive spacecraft. The control solution is based on a variable structure approach that relies on the sliding mode control theory. More precisely, the general super-twisting algorithm is used to control the chaser’s attitude, whereas the control of the relative position between the two spacecraft is based on the simplex-based sliding mode control theory. The method is tested in a full-scaled benchmark that accurately simulates the capture mission.