Numerical methods for the optimal control of the heel angle of a rocket (Q2073530)

Summary: In this work, we calculated the optimal heel angle trajectory of a rocket which have a constant mass and moves with a nonrectilinear motion from an initial point to a final one with a known altitude. The objective of the study is to maximise the lateral offset of the rocket. This problem is modelled as a nonlinear optimal control problem, where the control represents the heel angle of the rocket. In order to find a numerical solution to the problem, we applied the shooting method which is based on the Pontryagin's maximum principle, and the Euler discretisation method, then we developed an implementation with the MATLAB programming language. Finally, we presented simulation results which compare the two numerical methods.