Advanced Control System Design for Hypersonic Vehicles, Phase I

Guidance and control system design for hypersonic vehicles is more challenging than their subsonic and supersonic counterparts. Some of these challenges are (i) coupling between the aerodynamic, structural and propulsion sub-systems (ii) uncertainty involved in modeling these couplings and (iii) state-space constraints. Proposed research seeks to address these challenges using advanced robust control system design techniques. Key components of the proposed research are (i) hypersonic vehicle modeling, (ii) uncertainty representation, (iii) robust controller designs, and, (iv) robustness evaluation tools. Personnel at OSI have extensive experience in the area of flight control system design and flight vehicle modeling. Phase I research will demonstrate the feasibility by using existing longitudinal hypersonic vehicle models. Phase II research will pursue three dimensional modeling of the hypersonic vehicle alongside advancing the control system design. A complete version of the control system design software will be developed and provided to NASA by the end of Phase II work.

Potential NASA Commercial Applications: Hypersonic vehicle development is being actively pursued by NASA and the DoD for several missions. The control system architecture developed in this research will be applicable to global strike missions involving hypersonic missiles and different space access vehicle designs being pursued by space tourism companies.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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