Xiao-Long Su, Jian-Qiao Yu, Ya-Fei Wang and Lin-lin Wang
International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sicences, vol. 14, no. 3, pp.247-255, 2013

Abstract : The flight control of re-entry vehicles poses a challenge to conventional gain-scheduled flight controllers due to the widely spread aerodynamic coefficients. In addition, a wide range of uncertainties in disturbances must be accommodated by the control system. This paper presents the design of roll channel controller for a non-axisymmetric reentry vehicle model using trajectory linearization control (TLC) method. The dynamic equations of moving mass system and roll control model are established in Lagrange method. Nonlinear tracking and decoupling control by trajectory linearization can be viewed as the ideal gain-scheduling controller designed at every point along the flight trajectory, it provides robust stability and performance at all stages of flight without adjusting controller gains. It is this “plug-and-play” feature that is highly preferred for developing, testing and routine operating of the re-entry vehicles. Although the controller is designed only for nominal aerodynamic coefficients, excellent performance is verified by simulation for wind disturbances and variations from -30% to +30% of the aerodynamic coefficients.

Keyword : trajectory linearization control (TLC), aerodynamic coefficients variation, roll control system