Vibration Suppression for Refueling Boom Based on Back-stepping Sliding Mode

The back-stepping sliding mode control law is proposed in this paper to suppress the vibration of the refueling boom. Since the aerodynamic characteristics of the refueling boom are consistent with the slender beam, the vibration of refueling boom exists in the air refueling process. To describe and analyze the motion of the elastic refueling boom, the rigid-elastic kinematic equations are established based on the energy method, which is composed of the Lagrange's equation and the principle of virtual work. Due to the kinematic equations, the back-stepping sliding mode control law is developed to suppress the vibration. The results show that the attitude of refueling boom is effectively maintained and the vibration of the elastic refueling boom is observably suppressed with the proposed controller. And the robustness of the system is improved by using the proposed control law.