Chattering attenuation sliding mode control of a satellite's attitude

This paper develops a new robust nonlinear control algorithm based on the theory of sliding mode to control the attitude of a satellite. The system comprises a satellite with three pairs of thrusters on the satellite's principal axes. Since conventional sliding mode controllers include a discontinuous function, a significant problem called chattering can occur. The main purpose of this paper is to design a new switching function in order to alleviate this drawback. Moreover, for increasing the robustness of the proposed controller, a new slope-varying hyperbolic function is utilized. Simulation results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed method.