Model Based Desgin Environment for Launcher Upper Stage GNC Development
For aerospace engineers developing GNC systems for launcher upper stages, this work offers an integrated MBD framework to streamline the development process, though it is incremental in nature.
The paper presents a model-based design (MBD) framework for developing guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithms for launcher upper stages, aiming to reduce development costs and improve responsiveness to requirement changes. The framework integrates modeling, design, and analysis activities to address the complexity of future launchers.
The cost associated with developing flight control forms a significant part of the overall development cost. The increased demand for greater functionality and for extending the domain of applicability of future launchers leads to higher complexity of the GNC algorithms. Furthermore, there is also a need for a responsive design methodology, which can quickly adapt to changes in the requirements during the development process. These demands are stretching the current,largely manual, development process, which is fragmented in the different disciplines and activities concerning modelling, algorithm design, software coding, implementation on the avionics platform and the associated testing at the different stages. The model-based-design (MBD) philosophy presents an attractive solution in addressing the multi-disciplinary nature of the flight algorithm design task. In terms of design process, this materializes in a tight coupling between the modelling, the design and the analysis activities.An integrated design framework for the GNC development for future launcher upper stages has been realized.