Modern analysis techniques for gain scheduled Thrust Vector Controllers of launchers

Current procedures used in the clearance/analysis of gain scheduled flight control laws for Launch Vehicles (LV) tend to be very time consuming and complicated. Furthermore, the clearance procedure is in many cases limited to only certain vertices (determined on prior experience) of the uncertain parameter space, in the hope that the worst case scenario is not somewhere in the middle. The main objective of this study is to apply the modern control concepts of Linear Fractional Transformations (LFT), µ-analysis and Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) techniques, to the clearance/analysis of gain scheduled flight control laws for a single axis attitude Thrust Vector Control (TVC) Launch Vehicle.