Terminal sliding mode control for coordinated motion of a space rigid manipulator with external disturbance

The control problem of coordinated motion of a free-floating space rigid manipulator with external disturbance is discussed. By combining linear momentum conversion and the Lagrangian approach, the full-control dynamic equation and the Jacobian relation of a free-floating space rigid manipulator are established and then inverted to the state equation for control design. Based on the terminal sliding mode control (SMC) technique, a mathematical expression of the terminal sliding surface is proposed. The terminal SMC scheme is then developed for coordinated motion between the base's attitude and the end-effector of the free-floating space manipulator with external disturbance. This proposed control scheme not only guarantees the existence of the sliding phase of the closed-loop system, but also ensures that the output tracking error converges to zero in finite time. In addition, because the initial system state is always at the terminal sliding surface, the control scheme can eliminate reaching phase of the SMC and guarantee global robustness and stability of the closed-loop system. A planar free-floating space rigid manipulator is simulated to verify the feasibility of the proposed control scheme.