This book is written for aerospace engineers who have completed their BS degree and are interested in the design and analysis of rocket attitude control systems. It introduces a new approach to the design, characterized by its robustness. Current LV attitude control systems are designed based on classical SISO control theory, and they lack robustness. The theory used here truly offers a technique that enables us to design control systems that are reasonably insensitive to math modeling errors and can withstand disturbances such as gust, and in addition it doesn’t need external states estimator, such as Kalman filtering. Extensive simulation results, which demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, are presented in this book. Basic rocket theory and a concept of H-infinity control system design technique are explained for those who are new in these fields of study.

A general procedure for the design and analysis of three-axis, large-angle attitude control systems has been developed. Properties of three-dimensional rotations are used to formulate a model of such systems. The model is general in that it is based on those properties which are common to all attitude control systems, rather than on special properties of particular components. Numerical values are assigned to attitude error by means of error functions. These functions are used to construct asymptotically stable control laws. The overall (global) behavior of the system is characterized by the envelope of all time histories of attitude error generated by every possible combination of initial condition, target attitude motion, and disturbance. A method for computing upper bounds on the response envelope is presented. Applications of this method indicate that it provides a useful alternative to Liapunov analysis for the determination of system stability, responsiveness, and sensitivity to disturbances, parameter variations, and target attitude motion.