Fixed-time sliding mode consensus control for multiple solar sail formations in planetary inclined elliptic displaced orbits with actuator faults

Abstract: This paper investigates solar sail planetary inclined elliptic displaced orbits (PIEDOs) with reflectivity control devices (RCDs). A significant feature of solar sail PIEDOs is that the angle between the planet-focus line and the elliptic orbital plane is variable, which does not exist in the existing planetary elliptic displaced orbits (PEDOs) of a solar sail. We derive the requirements for the attitude and RCDs of the sail to achieve PIEDOs. Furthermore, this paper discusses the problem of multiple solar sail formations (MSSFs) in PIEDOs. The solar sail formation consists of a chief and multiple deputies. The chief travels along a predetermined PIEDO and the deputies are near the chief. To achieve the desired solar sail formation, the deputies require the chief’s state information. In contrast, the chief does not require the deputies’ state information. An undirected connected graph is utilized to express the communication topology between the deputies. An innovative fixed-time sliding mode consensus control scheme for the solar sail formation is devised. This scheme not only employs a nonsingular terminal sliding mode but also addresses challenges caused by both loss of effectiveness and bias faults in actuators. With this scheme, the deputies can consistently track their respective desired trajectories in fixed time. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to verify the validity and superiority of the devised scheme.