Adaptive Guidance System for Hypersonic Vehicles with Reconfigurable Inner-Loop Control

Reconfiguration for reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) presents a number of unique challenges not addressed in prior fixed-wing reconfigurable controls work, including the need to adapt trajectory profiles quickly to achieve revised mission objectives safely.Barron Associates, Inc. (BAI) has teamed with Orbital Sciences Corporation to develop a continuously adaptive-reconfigurable guidance system for hypersonic RLV systems. This innovative modular guidance technique autonomously identifies degradedinner-closed-loop performance and adapts both the guidance gains and reference trajectories for the compromised system to maintain stability and achieve the mission objectives. One significant advantage of the approach is that it can providereconfiguration to existing guidance and control loops without requiring a major re-design. In the Phase I research to date, the team has demonstrated the proof of concept in X-34 simulations, concentrating on drag uncertainties and elevon and speed brakefailures during the approach-to-landing phase of the RLV mission. The proposed Phase II effort will extend the approach to address (1) the full three-axis dynamics, (2) a broader class of failures and uncertainties, and (3) additional mission segmentsincluding hypersonic flight. Additionally, the team will demonstrate the algorithms using both high fidelity simulations and real time hardware-in-the-loop simulations at Orbital.