ECE.16 – Rocket Canard Fin Stabalization
Team Members Heading link
- Philip Korus
- Abhiishek Muralidhar
- Juancarlos Paez
Project Description Heading link
According to the National Association of Rocketry, 6000 rockets are launched each year. Of those 6000, there are 100-625 self reported incidents regarding flight failure. One of the more common modes of failure is that of unstable rockets. To solve this problem, we created a system that helps prevent failure of the rocket by correcting incorrect pitch and rolls by use of a canard system. The canard system operates by having a smaller set of movable fins higher up on the rocket so that any misalignments can be fixed by turning the fins in the appropriate direction. The canard system operates with the use of 4 servos and an Arduino using a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control system to guide the movement. By updating the general rocket variables in the software and fin size, our system can stabilize similar sized hobbyist rockets.