Research Summaries

Back Pseudospectral Optimal Control for Flight Trajectory Optimization-Phase II

Fiscal Year 2017
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s) Ross, Isaac M.
Sponsor Stochastech Corporation dba Tempest Technologies (Other)
Summary TEMPEST and NPS researchers plan to build on our successful Phase I prototype to deliver an analysis tool and software package for the design and implementation of real-time feedback flight trajectory optimization using pseudospectral optimal control (PSOC).
The objective of this project is a software design tool/embeddable software package pair that allows missile designers and mission planners to optimize missile flight trajectories in a way that responds in real-time to changes in mission parameters and goals. The design tool allows the analyst to enter aerodynamic and control system characteristics of the missile and objectives of the mission and determine required feedback rates and achievable performance. The embeddable software contains a real-time version of PSOC for flight trajectory optimization, coupled with estimation and feedback modules, to implement designers’ objectives.
As the research moves to Phase II, current effort comprises three primary activities that will lead to three specific deliverables. First is the development and analysis of mathematical models of the flight dynamics of a missile of sponsor interest: the AGM-88 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM). The mathematical model involves a controlled dynamical system that characterizes the dynamics of the missile for the purposes of trajectory analysis and optimization. In addition to its use in the optimization software for control computation, the mathematical model also allows us to determine key feedback rate requirements related to the missile’s aerodynamics and control responses. These parameters govern the “flight trajectory optimization bandwidth” necessary for recomputation and feedback in a real-time environment.
The second primary activity is the integration of this flight dynamics analysis tool with the PSOC software developed in Phase I. The resulting deliverable software will be flight trajectory design and optimization software package highly tuned to missile applications, providing missile designers and mission planners with the state-of-the-art in optimization.
The third activity transitions MATLAB software to C for real-time embedded performance in demanding missile guidance and control applications. This effort will require very efficient optimization routines that, rather than being general purpose constrained optimization code, are specially designed to leverage the structure of missile dynamics and PSOC algorithms.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal