An adaptive control approach to the attitude control of a flexible rocket Abstract An adaptive notch filter design that considers

the body-bending vibration associated with the attitude control of a two-stage sounding rocket is discussed in this paper. The algorithm adapts the parameters while keeping the poles of the notch filter inside the unit circle on the z-plane, and it satisfies the stability conditions of the filter at all times. Only a single parameter of the filter is adapted to simplify the algorithm to speed up the convergence rate. Applying this adaptive notch filter to the two-stage sounding rocket results in stable response characteristics of the attitude control system, which is unstable without adaptation.

Attitude control of a flexible launch vehicle using an adaptive notch filter: Ground experiment Abstract Attitude control of a flexible launch vehicle using adaptive notch filtering with realtime control is addressed in this paper. An experimental ground model is developed to verify the stability of the adaptive control technique based upon an adaptive notch filter. The experimental setup simulates the planar motion of a flexible launch vehicle as a coupled dynamics of rigid-body pitch motion and flexible vibration. The adaptive notch filter, which updates the filter parameters continuously from a sensor measurement, is implemented in real-time. The principal purpose of this study is to apply the adaptive notch filter algorithm in a feasibility study to assess its practical implementation. Through this experimental study, it was found that an adaptive controller in the form of an adaptive notch filter successfully stabilizes the uncertain and time-varying launch vehicle model dynamics via a thrust vector control.

A gyroless sounding rocket system with sub-arc-second pointing stability

Abstract
The Solar Pointing Aerobee Rocket Control System (SPARCS) has been developed to satisfy the demand from solar experimenters for a lightweight system to point payloads precisely at the sun. A unique feature of SPARCS is that it uses no gyros, during despin and acquisition, as well as during fine pointing. Both attitude and rate are derived from the direction cosine outputs of sun sensors and magnetometers by a simple arrangement of solidstate circuits. Both flight and laboratory results for SPARCS are presented to demonstrate that pointing stability, the jitter amplitude, approaching 0.1 arc-sec with good disturbance response can be achieved. The flight results, from a continuing, successful flight program, show that 1 arc-sec pointing stability has been achieved by SPARCS I. The laboratory

results, from hardware investigations conducted to obtain sub-arc-second pointing for SPARCS II, an improved system, show that stability better than 0.1 arc-sec has been achieved. Pneumatic systems which use conventional Pulse Width Pulse Frequency (PWPF) valve drive electronics and Fixed Pressure Regulators (FPR) are compared with new systems investigated which include the use of Differential Pulse Width (DPW) valve drive electronics, a Variable Pressure Regulator (VPR) with adaptive control system electronics, and a Fluidic Proportional Thruster (FPT). The new systems investigated are not primarily limited by the pneumatics, as is the PWPF system; they are primarily limited by the noise in the control electronics, which is about 0.1 arc-sec for SPARCS II.

Control system design of flexible-body launch vehicles Abstract Based on a series of H-I launches in Japan, a review of control system designs of expendable launch vehicles is presented in terms of their flexibility. The equations of motion are first formulated for lateral and longitudinal dynamics of a flexible vehicle, after which the aerodynamic loads caused by in-flight atmospheric wind are described in relation to trajectory planning. Included are mode analyses for launch vehicles and time responses to the flight environment. Finally, stability analyses for lateral and longitudinal vibrations of launch vehicles are presented with special emphasis on POGOs.

Attitude control of a spinning flexible spacecraft Abstract The dynamics of rotational motion of a spinning orbiting spacecraft consisting of two rigid bodies connected by a flexible joint and arbitrary number of flexible appendages (two of which are flexible mass less booms having masses on their tips) is analyzed. Active attitude control is provided by momentum exchange devices (e.g. control moment gyroscopes) or a mass expulsion system. The linearized equations of motion describing the vehicle are presented, and a large scale digital simulation that has been developed at the Marshall Space Flight Centre is presented. A simplified model of the geometrically complex vehicle is selected to make it analytically tractable. The simplified model consists of a single rigid core body with two attached flexible mass less booms having tip masses. The states of the vehicle are defined as small perturbations about its steady-state spin. An analysis is performed to determine the domain of stability.

Robustness analysis of attitude and orbit control systems for flexible satellites Abstract In this study, an optimisation-based approach is proposed for the robustness analysis of an attitude and orbit control system (AOCS) for flexible satellites. Several optimisation methods, including local gradient-based algorithms, global evolutionary algorithms and hybrid local/global algorithms are applied to the problem of analysing the robustness of a full-authority multivariable controller with respect to several frequency and time domain performance criteria, for a 6 degree of freedom simulation model of a satellite with large sun shields. The results of our study reveal the advantages of optimisation-based worst-case analysis over traditional Monte Carlo simulations for systems with flexible dynamics. In particular, it is shown that frequency domain analysis can provide useful guidance for the formulation of subsequent time domain tests, and that hybrid local/global optimisation algorithms can produce more reliable estimates of worst-case performance, while also reducing the associated computational overheads. The proposed approach appears to have significant potential for improving the industrial flight clearance process for next-generation high-performance satellite control systems.

Fuzzy attitude control for flexible satellite during orbit maneuver Abstract Satellite with a large solar panel is taken as practical background. The dynamic model of the satellite is established via Lagrange equations. This model includes the orbit motion, the attitude motion and the flexible vibration of the solar panel. The coupling relations between the orbit control force, the attitude and the flexible vibration are studied. The orbit control force would stimulate the vibration of the flexible panel when the satellite takes orbital maneuver, and disturbance torque would also affect the attitude of the satellite. Attitude control law is designed based on fuzzy control theory considering the output character of the thrusters. Numerical simulation was carried out to testify the efficiency of the control system. The attitude angles are controlled within 0.6deg for all three axes and angular velocity is within 0.04deg/s during the orbit maneuver period.