# Adaptive Pressure Control for Use in Variable-Thrust Rocket Development

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an adaptive control method for variable-thrust rocket gas generators, combining delay compensation and adaptation to improve transient response and handle uncertainties, demonstrated through simulation and cold air testing.

## Contribution

It presents a novel delay resistant adaptive control approach specifically designed for variable-thrust rocket applications, with a comprehensive design methodology.

## Key findings

- Improved transient response over alternative methods
- Effective handling of time delays and uncertainties
- Successful implementation on industrial test setup

## Abstract

The precise control of gas generator pressure is important to obtain variable thrust in ducted rockets. A delay resistant closed loop reference model adaptive control is proposed in this paper to address this problem. The proposed controller combines delay compensation and adaptation with improved transient response. The controller is successfully implemented using an industrial grade cold air test setup, which is a milestone towards obtaining a fully developed throttleable rocket gas generator controller. Simulation and experimental comparisons with alternative adaptive approaches and a fixed controller demonstrate improved performance and effective handling of time delays and uncertainties. A step by step design methodology, covering robustfying schemes, selection of adaptation rates and initial controller parameters, is also provided to facilitate implementations.