Mars entry guidance based on nonlinear model predictive control with disturbance observer

摘要

This paper investigates entry guidance of a capsule for pinpoint landing on Mars. In this scenario, the capsule is subject to the external disturbances caused by the atmosphere that can result in control saturation, and then undesired landing errors. To this end, a new guidance scheme to satisfy entry constraints, high-accuracy landing at high elevation sites, is proposed. The technical contributions of this work are two-fold: first, in order to mitigate the effects caused by large disturbance, a function describing the joint constraints of bank angle and slacked height is proposed; based on the nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC), a new algorithm is developed, where the constraints of dynamics, bank angle, slacked height, are sufficiently considered and precisely modeled; second, a state-space observer to improve the prediction of disturbance is introduced, which can significantly improve the accuracy of landing performance. The numerical simulations show the feasibility and validity of the proposed scheme. (C) 2019 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.