Date of Award

6-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2018.

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Mohammad Ayoubi

Abstract

High power rockets could become dynamically unstable due to outside disturbances after takeoff. The instability is augmented when the rocket is "slow" off the launch rail, which happens when the thrust-to-weight ratio is less than 5:1. Due to these reasons, the objective of this project was to design and build an active control system that will make sure the rocket follows a straight path all the way to apogee. This will be done through a model-based design approach, in which a 6DOF mathematical model of the flight dynamics will be created.

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