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CEAS EuroGNC 2026

Linear Time-Varying Control for Accelerating Rockets
Joseph Z. Ben-Asher Professor, Aerspace Engineering, Technion, ITT, Haifa, Israel.
Abstract:
The problem of stabilizing and controlling rockets during the boost phase is considered. The rocket may be either fin-stabilized or spin-stabilized in open loop, with additional control surfaces available to enhance stability and disturbance rejection in closed loop. Flight conditions change drastically under forward acceleration. Instead of applying gain scheduling, direct linear time-varying methods, or nonlinear control strategies, the problem is reformulated into a linear time-invariant system by changing the independent variable from time to distance. The control law, designed in the distance domain, is then transformed back to the time domain, resulting in a linear time-varying controller. Nonlinear simulations confirm the effectiveness of the method.
Keywords: Accelerating Rockets; Boost-Phase Stability and Control; Fin Stabilized Rockets; Spin Stabilized Rockets
 View PDF CEAS-GNC-2026-002 doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-002


Joseph Z. Ben-Asher: Linear Time-Varying Control for Accelerating Rockets. Proceedings of the 2026 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Madrid, Spain. May 2026. doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-002.
BibTeX entry (UTF-8):

@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2026-002,
    author = {Ben-Asher, Joseph Z.},
    title = {Linear Time-Varying Control for Accelerating Rockets},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},
    address = {Madrid, Spain},
    month = may,
    year = {2026},
    doi = {10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-002}
}