Aerospace Systems en Control Theory

This course teaches the elements of handling dynamics in systems encountered in Aerospace Engineering. The goal is to provide students with all the theory and tools necessary to enable them to design, implement, and operate control systems for aerospace systems. An important part of the course is the actual programming (in Python/Matlab) of control systems for a wide variety of aircraft, UAVs, and satellites. For this, the student is introduced to the concepts of dynamical systems; inputs, outputs and system boundary and environment. Students learn to connect different system descriptions; state-space models, transfer functions, differential equations and frequency response descriptions. Students learn block diagram descriptions and block diagram manipulation. Desirable and undesirable properties of control systems are distinguished, the choice between elementary controller types to match a specific controlled system is discussed. Tuning methods for the controller parameters include the root-locus method, and frequency design methods (Bode).

The course uses examples commonly found in aerospace engineering, both dynamic models for whole systems (aircraft or satellites) and models for components, such as a landing gear or control surface with a hydraullic servo.