FPGA-based Controller For Electro-Mechanical Fin Actuation System Using Processor In The Loop (PIL)

The actuation system plays a significant role in any aerospace system design such as missiles, aircraft, UAVs, and spy-fly. The most commonly used actuation systems for missile applications are electro-mechanical, pneumatic, and hydraulic actuators. The main drawback of pneumatic and hydraulic actuators is that they may suffer from fluids leaks which leads to less reliability. So, in this paper, an electro-mechanical actuator aero fin control (EMA-AFC) is adopted for higher precision control positioning, simplicity, and high durability. The proposed (EMA-AFC) is designed based on missile dynamics constraints and the mechanical design and 3-D simulation are carried out and simulated using solid works software. As the actuation system nonlinearities can negatively affect the whole system performance in this work, a nonlinear actuation system model is presented and the related nonlinear parameters are identified and evaluated through a series of experiments. Also, an optimal PID control synthesis is developed using a genetic algorithm for improving system stability parameters. The proposed controller is implemented using FPGA (system generator) and is accomplished on Xilinx Spartan 3 AN FPGA board. A processor in the loop simulation (PIL) is carried out for evaluating the performance of the actuation system of four rudders, using random input signals to simulate roll, pitch, and yaw angles from autopilot after applying a mapping to deflection angles of the four rudders. The simulation results present high efficiency and robustness for different input signals with rapid amplitude and frequency changes for high dynamics systems.