Stable Spinning Deployment Control of a Triangle Tethered Formation System

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Control Theory
• Robotics

Background:

• Tethered formation systems are crucial for space missions like Earth observation and deep space exploration.
• Deployment and stable maintenance of these systems are challenging due to tether elasticity and flexibility, leading to oscillations.
• Existing control methods struggle with the complex dynamics of multitethered systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model a triangle tethered formation system.
• To analyze the exact stable conditions for maintaining the formation.
• To design a novel control scheme for spinning deployment and stable maintenance.

Main Methods:

• Modeling of a triangle tethered formation system.
• Analysis of exact stable conditions for formation maintenance.
• Design of a novel second-order sliding mode controller with a nonsingular sliding variable.
• Theoretical proof of finite-time convergence for the sliding variable.

Main Results:

• The proposed controller ensures finite-time convergence of the sliding variable to the manifold and then to equilibrium.
• Simulation results demonstrate faster convergence of states and sliding variables compared to classic second-order sliding-mode control.
• The novel scheme effectively addresses oscillations and complex formation maintenance challenges.

Conclusions:

• The developed control scheme provides an effective solution for the stable deployment and maintenance of triangle tethered formation systems.
• The novel nonsingular sliding variable enhances the performance and convergence speed of the controller.
• This research contributes to advancing the capabilities of space exploration and Earth observation missions.