Adaptive Trajectory Reshaping and Control System for RLVs (ATRC)

The ultimate goal of the proposed Adaptive Trajectory Reshaping and Control (ATRC) project is to develop an online response technology that allows autonomous RLVs to avoid catastrophic failure when subjected to performance restricting damages and failures. The main focus in Phase-II is to develop and demonstrate a response system that continuously reshapes and optimizes the reference trajectory and satisfies the terminal constraints subject to feasibility. Our approach ensures rigorous feasible immediate segment of the trajectory and optimal overall feasible trajectory with respect to the latest knowledge of the vehicle characteristics. The knowledge of effects of a failure at future flight is required to design feasible reshaped trajectories. Our approach uses regularization of the ill-posed learning problem by using fusion of existing knowledge and geometric characteristics to reduce the uncertainties of future flight conditions. Another major outcome of this effort is the algorithm for a real time on-line trajectory generation application considering that the effort involves the solution of two-point boundary value problem for a non-flat (under-actuated) non-linear differential equation of motion. Our approach solves a set of algebraic equations, yet strictly satisfying the non-linear differential equations of a non-flat system.