Nonsingular terminal sliding mode control for approach to non-cooperative satellite

The problem of final approach to a non-cooperative tumbling target is researched in this paper. The accurate orbit and attitude dynamics model of two relative motion spacecrafts with arbitrary eccentrics is established. The traditional linear synchronization rotating approach strategy is improved by designing exponential decay reference trajectory to insure the safety of final approach. The nonsingular terminal sliding mode control law is designed. The stability of the control law is demonstrated via a Lyapunov analysis and effectiveness of controller is verified by the numerical simulation.