Trajectory Optimization Using Algorithm and Its Implementation on FPGA for Real Time System

As the space activities expand in recent years, the space transportation between the earth and space is more and more activated. The Space Systems Laboratory of Kyushu Institute of Technology has been conducting suborbital winged rocket development project as a search project of fully reusable space transportation systems. This paper proposes a trajectory optimization method using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and its implementation on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to be applied to the winged rocket aiming at the onboard real time guidance system. The trajectory optimization is performed on the return flight phase of the winged rocket with flight area constraint. GA is an algorithm to solve optimization problems by employing the evolution system of life. GA has an advantage that the global search is acceptable, but has a disadvantage that the calculation cost is extremely higher than the other mathematical programming. The optimization with flight area constraint becomes possible by the use of the penalty method. In order to increase the searching performance, the crossover method and the generation alternation models are compared. An onboard real-time calculation system is designed by the implementation on FPGA, which user can freely connect wiring in LSI (Large Scale Integration) using software coding.