Modeling and Disturbance Compensation Sliding Mode Control for Solar Array Drive Assembly System

In this study, a dynamic model of a solar array drive system that includes a pair of flexible solar arrays with a central rigid shaft and a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) was developed, and a disturbance compensation sliding mode control (DCSMC) strategy was proposed to realize the speed smoothing and vibration suppression control of the system. The continuous nonlinear dynamic equation of the system was derived from Hamilton’s principle, and its linearized form was combined with the boundary conditions to obtain its natural frequency and global mode. The design of the DCSMC strategy was based on the solar array drive assembly (SADA) electromechanical dynamics model of the PMSM direct drive. An extended state observer (ESO) was used to estimate any system disturbances, and the signal was fed forward to sliding mode control (SMC) based on the varying gain saturation reaching law (VGSRL). To verify the validity of the model, its results were compared with those obtained using commercial finite element software. The numerical results showed that the SADA system with the DCSMC strategy outperformed the traditional proportional–integral (PI) control and SMC systems.