Variational method based robust adaptive control for a guided spinning rocket

In this paper, a robust adaptive controller is designed for a guided spinning rocket, whose dynamics presents the characteristics of pitch-yaw cross coupling, fast time-varying aerodynamics parameters and wide flight envelop. First, a coupled nonlinear six-degree-of-freedom equation of motion for a guided spinning rocket is developed, and the lateral acceleration motion is modeled as a control plant with time-varying matched uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics. Then, a robust adaptive control method is proposed by combining Bregman divergence and variational method to achieve fast adaption and maintain bounded tracking. The stability of the resulting closed-loop system is proved, and the ultimate bound and convergence rate are also analyzed. Finally, numerical simulations are performed for a single operating point and the whole flight trajectory to show the robustness and adaptability of the proposed method with respect to time-varying uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics.