SLIDING MODE FAULT DETECTION AND ISOLATION IN A SATELLITE LEADER/FOLLOWER SYSTEM

This paper proposes a fault detection and isolation scheme for a generic satellite leader/follower system. The measurement system is based on the so-called VISNAV scheme. The VISNAV outputs are processed in such a way as to obtain an accurate estimate of the relative position of the two space-craft and also to generate an alarm if a fault is detected in one of the beacons. The estimate of relative position is then used to drive a sliding mode observer which is used to robustly reconstruct actuators faults within the coupled system. The efficacy of this scheme is demonstrated on a ‘real world’ simulation.