Attitude Control for Rocket Main-stage-booster Recovery with Parafoil Using Sliding Mode Control

Parafoil-based rocket booster recovery technology currently has been a very important research field in aerospace, which is helpful in booster reusage, cost reduction, landing domain narrowing of rocket launch. In order to guarantee the accurate recovery of a certain rocket main-stage-booster using parafoil, the 6-DOF nonlinear mathematical model of the parafoil with main-stage-booster is established according to dynamics and kinemics analysis. Subsequently, the sliding mode variable structure control, which based on the exponential approach law, is proposed to develop the attitude and trajectory tracking control of the combination of parafoil and main-stage booster. The simulation results show that the attitude controller has favorable performance, and the trajectory controller tracks the desired flight path very well.