CEAS EuroGNC 2026
|
Robust Attitude Control System Design for the Autonomous Recovery of a Flexible Fairing
|
| Alejandro Montero Miñán |
GNC/AOCS Engineer, Indra-Space, Tres Cantos, Spain. | | Victor Covasan |
GNC/AOCS Engineer, Indra-Space, Tres Cantos, Spain. | | Pietro Ghignoni |
GNC/AOCS Engineer, Indra-Space, Tres Cantos, Spain. | | Jose Vasconcelos |
Head of GNC/AOCS, Indra-Space, Avionics BU, 1070-061 Lisbon, Portugal. | | Cèlia Yábar Valles |
GNC Systems Engineer, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands. |
|
| Abstract:
This paper presents the design of a robust attitude control system for the autonomous recovery of a flexible launch vehicle fairing, a topic currently absent from the literature. The fairing's aeroelastic properties introduce significant control challenges, particularly during atmospheric re-entry. To address these, the study goes beyond controller gain optimization to consider subsystem architecture selection and integration with real actuators, essential for realistic implementation. A linear time-invariant (LTI) model is developed to capture the key dynamics, incorporating parametric uncertainties that reflect aerodynamic variability and structural flexibility. The control architecture is based on H-infinity synthesis, chosen for its robustness and compatibility with gain-scheduling strategies. A detailed tuning methodology is presented, and the controller is evaluated for both performance and robustness. Validation is performed in a high-fidelity, nonlinear six-degrees-of-freedom simulation environment that includes aeroelastic effects, demonstrating reliable behavior across diverse flight conditions. The resulting controller, combined with simplified navigation and guidance functions, improves recovery success from nearly 0% to 75% under current mission requirements. This approach supports reliable, reusable fairing recovery through advanced guidance, navigation, and control techniques.
|
| Keywords: H-infinity Control; Attitude Control; Flexible structures; Autonomous recovery; Reusable Fairing |
 View PDF CEAS-GNC-2026-019 doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-019 |
| Alejandro Montero Miñán, Victor Covasan, Pietro Ghignoni, Jose Vasconcelos, Cèlia Yábar Valles: Robust Attitude Control System Design for the Autonomous Recovery of a Flexible Fairing. Proceedings of the 2026 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Madrid, Spain. May 2026. doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-019.
|
| BibTeX entry (UTF-8):
@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2026-019,
author = {Montero Miñán, Alejandro and Covasan, Victor and Ghignoni, Pietro and Vasconcelos, Jose and Yábar Valles, Cèlia},
title = {Robust Attitude Control System Design for the Autonomous Recovery of a Flexible Fairing},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},
address = {Madrid, Spain},
month = may,
year = {2026},
doi = {10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-019}
}
|