Pterodactyl: 6-DOF Integration of Guidance and Control Algorithms in Genesis

The NASA-funded Pterodactyl project seeks to advance the current state-of-the-art for entry vehicles by developing novel guidance and control technologies for Deployable Entry Vehicles. This paper builds upon the Pterodactyl architecture that employed eight individually articulating flaps with two options for guidance, bank angle modulation with the Fully Numerical Predictor Corrector Entry Guidance (FNPEG) technique and angle of attack and sideslip modulation with FNPEG uncoupled range control. These, with a linear quadratic regulator controller, have previously been presented in separate 3-DOF trajectory simulations, one for translational motion and another for rotational dynamics. This work will show results for integrated 6-DOF simulations, leveraging recent advancements in trajectory simulation tools, namely the Julia-based Genesis flight simulation tool. Results show similar performance for both schemes when compared to the previously presented 3-DOF results once the controllers were adequately tuned. Angle of attack and sideslip angle modulation necessitated a controller designed at high dynamic pressure conditions, and bank angle modulation necessitated a controller designed at lower dynamic pressure conditions. Notably, the angle of attack and sideslip modulation approach could not achieve the parachute deploy point target Mach number of 2, when only tuning the controller gains, so future work will be needed to improve guidance and control tracking.