Trajectory Optimization and Flight Strategy Design of Lifting Body Morphing Vehicle

Abstract

Based on the trajectory optimization, a flight strategy design method is proposed for high-speed unpowered lifting body morphing vehicle with a varying shape in the trajectory. Firstly, the second cone span is chosen as the only shape parameter of the deforming vehicle and an aerodynamic surrogate model is built based on the polynomial response surface method (RSM). And then, in order to determine the optimal flight strategy of the vehicle, the trajectory is optimized for the deforming vehicle based on the aerodynamic data provided by the surrogate model. In the trajectory optimization, the angle of attack, the angle of bank and the second cone span are considered as the control variables, and the maximum range is taken as the optimization objective. Moreover, a trajectory optimization for fixed-geometry shape is also provided as a comparison. The simulation results show that the range of deforming-shape flight mode is 12.7% higher than that of the fixed-shape flight mode, which provides a reference for the research of the high-speed lifting body morphing vehicle’s shape design and flight strategy design.