Preliminary Control Architecture Selection for Fairing Atmospheric Re-entry Problem

This paper aims to apply two classical and well-established controller architectures for re-entry to an innovative and realistic problem, as it is the re-entry of a flexible fairing and compare the achieved performances in a preliminary and simplified set-up. The considered platform is a 20 m fairing half, equipped with dedicated thrusters, intended as a recurring solution for recovery as part of the REFAIR project funded by ESA. The considered control solutions are a ∞ controller, with known stability and performance robustness, and a phase-plane controller, associated with simplicity and effectiveness. The control solution design is presented, and the results are compared, namely in terms of position dispersions at Mach 0.7 and fuel consumption. The suitability of the solutions is discussed by comparing the model agnostic approach of the phase plane controller with the model-based approach of the H ∞ controller.