Robust fault tolerant control for a class second-order nonlinear systems using an adaptive third-order sliding mode control

Due to the robustness against the uncertainties, conventional sliding mode control (SMC) has been extensively developed for fault-tolerant control (FTC) system. However, the FTCs based on conventional SMC provide several disadvantages such as large transient state error, less robustness, and large chattering, that limit its application for real application. In order to enhance the performance, a novel adaptive third-order SMC, which combines a novel third-order sliding mode surface, a continuous strategy and an adaptation law, is proposed. Compared with other innovation approaches, the proposed controller has an excellent capability to tackle several types of actuator faults with an enhancing on robustness, precision, chattering reduction, and time of convergence. The proposed method is then applied for an attitude control of a spacecraft and the results demonstrate the superior performance.