Stabilizing the attitude of a flexible spacecraft with fast convergence

To achieve the high accuracy attitude stabilization, by utilizing finite-time control technique, a non-smooth attitude stabilizing control strategy for flexible spacecrafts is investigated in this paper. Based on a backstepping-like control scheme, the non-smooth attitude controller can be constructed step by step. The rigorous mathematical stability analysis of the overall closed-loop system is made by means of the cascaded systems theory. Simulation results show that not only can the attitude be stabilized precisely, but also the elastic vibration of flexible appendages can be suppressed effectively.