Design and Implementation of a Sliding Mode Attitude Controller of a Satellite in Software in the Loop Test Bed

In this paper, a robust attitude control algorithm is developed based on sliding mode control for a satellite using four reaction wheels in a tetrahedron configuration. In this method, asymptotic stability of the proposed algorithm has been proven on lyapunov theory. Then, in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, a low-cost real-time software in the loop test bed is provided. The presented test bed is capable of real-time assessing the attitude sliding mode control algorithm. In this test bed, real-time modeling of satellite dynamic, environmental disturbances and reaction wheels are achieved in a simulator computer and the proposed control algorithm performance is investigated by implementing it in an electronic control board of the software in the loop test bed.