A Low-Cost and Low-Risk Testbed for Control Design of Launch Vehicles and Landing Systems

This research seeks to bridge the gap between the sim-ulation/theory and the flight-testing phases of control algorithm design for launch vehicles (LV s) and landing systems (LSs). This paper reviews contemporary testbeds for LV and LS control system design with an emphasis on reducing costs and risks. Also, a new low-cost and low-risk testbed utilizing a quadcopter, flexible inverted pendulum, and a hanging pendulum is proposed. It is shown that the planar dynamic response of this proposed testbed can match the planar dynamic response of an LV. As mission objectives for frequent cislunar and interplanetary travel become more complex, the algorithms that control LV s and LSs need to become more advanced to ensure mission safety and success. These control systems are slow to mature because it is difficult to perform experiments in an environment relevant to the mission in a safe and cost-effective manner. A solution to this problem frequently leveraged in the aviation and satellite industries involves mimicking the dynamic response of the vehicle with a test platform that is low-cost and low-risk.

1. Introduction

In recent years, the interest in regular cislunar and interplanetary travel has increased [1], [2]. As these missions progress, their objectives will increase in complexity. This then requires that the technology used to accomplish these objectives becomes more advanced. In particular, the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) systems on vehicles used to deliver payloads to their destinations need to become more advanced in order to ensure mission completion and safety of the payload. The work described in this paper deals with the control systems used on launch vehicles (LV s) and landing systems (LSs), with an emphasis on methods to efficiently develop and mature advanced control system concepts.