A new path planner based on flatness approach application to an atmospheric reentry mission

This communication proposes a method for designing a model-based onboard path planner for next generation reusable launch vehicles. Flatness approach is used to map the system dynamics into a lower dimension space. As a consequence, the number of optimization variables associated to the optimal control problem is reduced. In addition, nonconvex nonlinear trajectory constraints in the flat output space are inner approximated by means of deformable geometric shapes. A genetic algorithm is used to find a global solution both for the geometric shapes and the associated geometric transformations tuning parameters. Finally, simulations results, based on the terminal area energy management phase of the Shuttle orbiter STS-1 reentry mission, are presented to illustrate the proposed approach.