DOMENICO TROTTA

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXIII



Thesis title: Adaptive Control of Launch Vehicles in Atmospheric Flight

The research focuses on the development of innovative control techniques for attitude control of a launch vehicle (LV) during the atmospheric flight, and to investigate their possible benefits in terms - for instance - of improved disturbance rejection capability, as well as, a means for reducing the burden of recurrent activities of mission integration and flight program software finalization. In this respect, a complete nonlinear mathematical model of the launch vehicle dynamics, comprehensive of all relevant aspects for the attitude control problem is first developed. Next, linearized equations of motion are derived under the assumption of small deviations of the vehicle motion from a reference trajectory. The time-invariant linear model is used to synthesize a baseline controller (BC) that features two proportional-derivative (PD) components for attitude and translational motion control, plus filters to phase-stabilize and notch the bending modes by using classical, frequency-based, analysis, and control design techniques. Among several advanced algorithms referenced in the literature, the Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) has been selected and implemented in the LV flight control system in order to retain the functionality and proven record of success of classically designed linear control systems, while consistently and predictably improving their performance and robustness in expanded flight and/or uncertainty parameter envelopes. AAC adjusts the action of a baseline PID-type controller by means of a forward loop gain multiplicative adaptive law that, basically, on-line modulates BC output either to minimize the error with respect to a reference model or to limit undesirable high-frequency response in the control path. In order to fully exploit the AAC potentiality, an effective and reliable tuning procedure for AAC gains is developed,.where a robust design optimization (RDO) problem is formulated, and the goal is to maximize a statistical metric that describes FCS performance measured over a set of LV simulations. Finally, an analysis of the effects of uncertainties on bending mode characteristics is carried out. Variations of bending mode parameters have a significant and negative impact on AAC performance and, consequently, on LV stability. In this respect, the use of adaptive filters is investigated in order to further improve flight control system robustness. An adaptive notch filter is designed, the parameters of which are updated continuously by an adaptation algorithm that uses the pitch rate sensor output so as to estimate the unknown parameters of the filter and precisely match the actual bending mode frequency.

Research products

11573/1697642 - 2023 - Optimization of UAV robust control using genetic algorithm
D’Antuono, Vincenzo; De Matteis, Guido; Trotta, Domenico; Zavoli, Alessandro - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: IEEE ACCESS (Piscataway NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) pp. 122252-122272 - issn: 2169-3536 - wos: WOS:001102144600001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85174821131 (3)

11573/1567915 - 2021 - Genetic algorithm based parameter tuning for robust control of launch vehicle in atmospheric flight
Belletti Araque, J. P.; Zavoli, A.; Trotta, D.; De Matteis, G. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: IEEE ACCESS (Piscataway NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) pp. 108175-108189 - issn: 2169-3536 - wos: WOS:000682094800001 (2) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85111052859 (5)

11573/1482215 - 2021 - Advanced hinf synthesis for launch vehicle attitude control in atmospheric flight
Belletti Araque, José P.; Zavoli, Alessandro; Trotta, Domenico; De Matteis, Guido - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: AIAA Science and technology forum and exposition, AIAA SciTech Forum 2021 (Virtual)
book: AIAA Scitech 2021 forum - (9781624106095)

11573/1482211 - 2021 - Optimal tuning for robust control of a small fixed-wing UAV
D'antuono, Vincenzo; De Matteis, Guido; Trotta, Domenico; Zavoli, Alessandro - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: AIAA Scitech 2021 Forum (Virtual)
book: AIAA Scitech 2021 forum - (978-1-62410-609-5)

11573/1604296 - 2021 - Tracking filter integration in the adaptive augmenting controller of a launch vehicle
Trotta, D.; Zavoli, A.; De Matteis, G.; Neri, A. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: JOURNAL OF GUIDANCE CONTROL AND DYNAMICS (American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics:1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500:Reston, VA 20191:(800)639-2422, (703)264-7500, EMAIL: custserv@aiaa.org, INTERNET: http://www.aiaa.org/, Fax: (703)264-7657) pp. 2327-2336 - issn: 0731-5090 - wos: WOS:000753143900016 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85119403869 (1)

11573/1452689 - 2020 - Optimal tuning of adaptive augmenting controller for launch vehicles in atmospheric flight
Trotta, D.; Zavoli, A.; De Matteis, G.; Neri, A. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: JOURNAL OF GUIDANCE CONTROL AND DYNAMICS (American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics:1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500:Reston, VA 20191:(800)639-2422, (703)264-7500, EMAIL: custserv@aiaa.org, INTERNET: http://www.aiaa.org/, Fax: (703)264-7657) pp. 2133-2140 - issn: 0731-5090 - wos: WOS:000586797200011 (8) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85093841607 (11)

11573/1348941 - 2020 - Opportunities and limitations of adaptive augmented control for launch vehicle attitude control in atmospheric flight
Trotta, Domenico; Zavoli, Alessandro; De Matteis, Guido; Agostino, Neri - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 2019 (Portland; Maine (USA))
book: Advances in the astronautical sciences. AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Conference - ()

11573/1452920 - 2020 - Adaptive attitude control of launch vehicles in atmospheric flight
Trotta, Domenico; Zavoli, Alessandro; De Matteis, Guido; Agostino, Neri - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 2020 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics specialist conference (Virtual Conference)
book: Advances in the astronautical sciences - ()

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