Acceleration Feedback for Reduced-Gravity Flight
Acceleration-feedback control for atmospheric reduced-gravity (parabolic) flights, in collaboration with Georgia Tech and KAUST.
Reduced-gravity (“micro-g”) conditions for research and training are produced by flying an aircraft along a carefully shaped parabolic trajectory, so that occupants and payloads experience near-weightlessness during the free-fall arc. Holding that condition precisely is a demanding control problem: the quantity that actually matters — the acceleration felt on board — must be regulated directly.
This collaborative project develops an acceleration-feedback control scheme for atmospheric reduced-gravity flights, closing the loop on measured acceleration to track a desired gravity profile more accurately and repeatably than open-loop parabolas allow.
Geometric view of a controlled trajectory evolving on a curved state manifold.
Acceleration Feedback Control for Atmospheric Reduced Gravity Flights — M. Nasser Aldosari, Y. H. Chen, Adeel Akhtar, Eric Feron (AIAA SciTech 2025).