Flight control of a launch vehicle using the hierarchical structured dynamic inversion with three time-scales

The paper presents the design of an automatic control system for the vertical plane dynamics of a launch vehicle in the second flight stage (after the launch phase) by using the hierarchical structured dynamic inversion approach with three time-scales' separation. A nonlinear model describes the launch vehicle's dynamics; the speed and the flight path slope angle are controlled as slow state variables, the pitch angle as fast state variable, and the pitch angular velocity as very fast state variable. For the designed control system, the associated Matlab/Simulink model is software implemented and the system time characteristics and the vertical flight path are plotted.