Second-order terminal sliding mode control for hypersonic vehicle in cruising flight with sliding mode disturbance observer

This paper focuses on the design of nonlinear robust controller and disturbance observer for the longitudinal dynamics of a hypersonic vehicle (HSV) in the presence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. First, by combining terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) and second-order sliding mode control (SOSMC) approach, the secondorder terminal sliding control (2TSMC) is proposed for the velocity and altitude tracking control of the HSV. The 2TSMC possesses the merits of both TSMC and SOSMC, which can provide fast convergence, continuous control law and high-tracking precision. Then, in order to increase the robustness of the control system and improve the control performance, the sliding mode disturbance observer (SMDO) is presented. The closed-loop stability is analyzed using the Lyapunov technique. Finally, simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, as well as the improved overall performance over the conventional sliding mode control (SMC).