Test mass capture for drag-free satellite based on RBF neural network adaptive sliding mode control

For drag-free satellites, one core technology required to achieve the mission requirements is the capture control of the test mass after release. The purpose of capture control is to avoid collisions between test mass and satellite cavity. Currently, there are few studies concerning the capture control of test mass after release. This paper presented a high-precision capture control method for the test mass release, which covers attitude-orbit modeling with 12 degrees of freedom, RBF neural network adaptive sliding mode controller design, actuation waveforms selection, actuation strategy selection, performance results, and contrast analysis.