Coordinated control for regulation/protection mode-switching of ducted rockets

Abstract

This study is concerned with the coordinated control problem for regulation/protection mode-switching of a ducted rocket, in order to obtain the maximum system performance while ensuring safety. The proposed strategy has an inner/outer loop control structure which decomposes the contradiction between performance and safety into two modes of regulation and protection. Specifically, first, the mathematical model including the actuator (gas regulating system) and the plant (ducted rocket engine) is introduced. Second, taking the inlet buzz for instance, the ducted rocket coordinated control problem for thrust regulation and inlet buzz limit protection is formulated and discussed. Third, to solve the problem, based on the main inner loop, a limit protection controller (outer loop) design method is developed utilizing a linear quadratic optimal control technique, and a coordinated control logic is then presented. At last, the whole coordinated control strategy is applied to the ducted rocket control model, and simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness.