Sensor placement strategy for a hypersonic vehicle with elastic effects

This paper focuses on the sensor placement strategy for a hypersonic vehicle with elastic effects. A rate gyroscope is modeled to measure the pitch rate of a hypersonic vehicle. Since the elastic effects is being considered, the measured pitch rate would be affected by the elastic mode shape of the vehicle, resulting in a difference between the real and measured pitch rate. Since the elastic states of the vehicle cannot be measured directly, this paper develops the sensor placement strategy to enhance the observability of the system. Then, by applying the vehicle's velocity and altitude as reference tracking commands, this paper develops an output feedback control law with observer for the vehicle. Simulation results for different sensor placement position are given to show the strategy and effectiveness of the controller.