A time-specified nonsingular terminal sliding mode control approach for trajectory tracking of robotic airships

Abstract

The robotic airships provide potential aerial platforms for various applications and require robust trajectory tracking to support these tasks. A time-specified nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (TS-NTSMC) scheme is proposed to address the problem of trajectory tracking for robotic airships, which can avoid the singularity problem and specify the convergence time of terminal sliding mode control. First, the problem of trajectory tracking of robotic airships is formulated. Second, a nonsingular terminal sliding manifold consisting of pre-specified nonlinear functions is proposed, and the TS-NTSMC law is designed for trajectory tracking. Time-specified convergence and stability of the closed-loop system can be guaranteed by Lyapunov theory. Finally, compared experimental simulations are given to illustrate the advantages of TS-NTSMC against NTSMC.