Dynamics and control of a tethered flight vehicle

Certain types of the problems of dynamics and control of maneuverable tethered flight vehicles are dealt with in this paper. The numerically linearized equations of motion are used in a stability analysis and to design control laws that may be used in station keeping and maneuvering of the vehicle. For motion in which deviations from the equilibrium states are small in magnitude and the maneuver of the vehicle is confined to a neighboring region, the use of a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) for the station keeping and a linear terminal controller for the maneuver is investigated. For the model and conditions used, it is shown that aerodynamic control may be used successfully for station keeping and maneuvering, and the aerodynamic control yields results comparable to those obtained by using reaction control.