Design of Longitudinal Control for Reduced-Gravity Atmospheric Flights
Published in AIAA SCITECH 2023, 2023
Parabolic flights are one way to simulate microgravity on Earth, which can be achieved by making aircraft follow specific flight trajectories. This work describes a kinematic and dynamic analysis of general partial gravity cases and develops a flight control framework for a zero-gravity flight using a proof-mass-tracking approach. A triple-integral control structure is adopted to overcome unknown, quadratically increasing drag. Furthermore, to avoid the non-minimum phase characteristics of aircraft longitudinal dynamics, the position deviation from the inertial reference is redefined such that the closed-loop system is minimum phase.
Recommended citation: Chen, Y. H., & Feron, E. (2023). Design of Longitudinal Control for Reduced-Gravity Atmospheric Flights. In AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum (p. 0218). https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/epdf/10.2514/6.2023-0218