Abstract: An integrated coupled control strategy with prescribed performance is proposed for proximity-operations of spacecraft formation flying in the presence of mutual couplings, model uncertainty and unknown but bounded external disturbance. On the basis of the prescribed performance control theory, the prescribed steady state and transient performance for the tracking error of the original relative translation and rotation system can be guaranteed through the stabilization of the transformed system. Sliding mode differentiator is introduced to overcome the problem of explosion of complexity inherent in traditional backstepping design. In addition, the requirements of knowing the system parameters and the unknown bound of the lumped uncertainty, including external disturbance and the estimate error of sliding mode differentiator, have been eliminated by using adaptive updating technique. Within the framework of Lyapunov theory, the stability of the transformed system is obtained. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Key words: prescribed performance, coupled control of relative position and attitude, sliding mode differentiator, robust adaptive control