Development of an Instrumentation System for Small Rockets Aerospace Engineering

124 Pages·2016·11.33 MB·English

Development of an Instrumentation System
for Small Rockets
Guilherme Clavel Perestrelo Caiado
Thesis to obtain the Master of Science Degree in
Aerospace Engineering
Supervisors: Prof. Agostinho Rui Alves da Fonseca,
Prof. Paulo Jorge Soares Gil
Examination Committee
Chairperson: Prof. João Manuel Lage de Miranda Lemos
Supervisor: Prof. Agostinho Rui Alves da Fonseca
Member of the Committee: Prof. Luís Alberto Gonçalves de Sousa
December 2016

Acknowledgments
Theauthorwouldliketothanktheflowingpeople:
theAeroclubedeTorresVedrasfortheirassistanceandrunway,particularlyCaptainJoãoFrancisco
andCarolina;
DiogoHenriquesandDuarteDonas-Botofortheirassistanceandequipment;
Aerotecfortheirequipment;
professorsAgostinhoFonsecaandPauloGilfortheirknowledgeandinput;
allmyteacherforalltheygaveme;
myfriends(withoutwhomstudyingwouldhavebeemucheasier,buthardlyanyfun);
and last, but not least, my family, particularly my parents and brothers, for standing with me along
this, suddenly, hard path and letting me know the delay was a damn problem, but nothing I couldn’t
overcome,Iloveyouall.
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Abstract
The objective of this thesis is to develop a compact instrumentation system for a model rocket, and
a telemetry base station, using off-the-shelf components. First the actual parameters to be recorded
arediscussedandchosen. Fourdatatypesweredeemedimportant: time, atmosphericdata(pressure
and temperature), translational data (position, velocity, and acceleration) and orientation data (attitude,
angular velocity, and magnetic field orientation). Second, the system is designed and the component
selected, all while analysing the advantages and limitations of each part, culminating in the selection
of the test rocket. Third, the next logical step is to create the software to interface with the system and
components, this includes the on board micro-controller programming as well as the telemetry station
computer executable. Fourth, the whole system is ground tested, to calibrate the sensors and validate
adequate system function before the start of airborne testing. Finally, the system is flight tested, first
onlyduringdecent,tovalidatetherecoverysystem,andtheninthechosentestrocket. Itwasconcluded
thattheinstrumentationsystemachievedalltheproposedrequirements,thedatareceivedintheflight-
test closely matches the simulation data, with the differences being more likely due to imperfections in
engineconstructionthanduetosystemerror.
Keywords: Instrumentation,rocket,telemetry,compact,off-the-shelf
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Resumo
O objectivo desta tese é o desenvolvimento de um sistema de instrumentação para um "model roc-
ket",eumaestaçãobasedetelemetriautilizandocomponentesoff-the-shelf. Primeiroforamescolhidos
os parâmetros a serem medidos. Quatro tipos de dados foram considerados importantes: tempo, da-
dos atmosféricos (pressão e temperatura), dados de translação (posição, velocidade e aceleração), e
dados de orientação espacial (atitude, velocidade angular, e orientação magnética). De seguida o sis-
temafoiprojectadoeoscomponentesseleccionados,sempreanalizadosasvantagenselimitaçõesde
cada componente. O próximo passo lógico foi o desenvolvimento do software de controlo do micro-
controlador e também o executável da estação de telemetria. Iniciaram-se depois os testes de solo a
fim de calibrar os instrumentos, bem como confirmar o correcto funcionamento do sistema. Por ultimo
realizaram-seosensaiosemvoo,primerosóduranteadescida,comoobjectivotevalidarosistemade
recuperação, e finalmente os ensaios no rocket de teste. Conclui-se que o sistema de instrumentação
cumpriu todos os objectivos delineados, os dados recebidos durante os ensaios em voo ficaram muito
próximos das simulações, as diferenças existentes sendo devidas a imperfeições de construção dos
motores.
Palavras-Chave: Instrumentação,telemetria,foguete,compacto,off-the-shelf
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Contents
ListofTables xi
ListofFigures xi
Acronyms xvii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 BriefHistory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 ResearchQuestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.5 State-of-the-art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.6 OverviewoftheWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 PreliminaryWork 5
2.1 Rockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 ParameterstoMeasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Acquiredanddevelopedcomponents 15
3.1 Microprocessor/BasePlatform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 RemoteCommunication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 DataRecording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4 Inertial,magneticandatmosphericdata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.5 GNSSreceiver: Time,PositionandVelocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6 ElectricalPower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.7 Rocket,engineandplatform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.8 Otherequipment(GroundSegment) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.9 Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4 AlgorithmandCodedevelopment 31
4.1 RocketSegment: Arduinosketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.2 GroundSegment: TelemetryStationC++code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.3 PythonBinarytoCSVcode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.4 MatlabDataHandlingCode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5 GroundTesting 37
5.1 WeighingandCG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2 AttitudeTest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.3 PressureandTemperatureTest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
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5.4 GPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6 LaunchProcedure 53
6.1 Launchsiteandconditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.2 Instrumentationsystemsetup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.3 Rocketlaunchsetup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7 FlightTesting 55
7.1 StaticFall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.2 AircraftDeliveredFall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.3 FlightTest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8 Conclusions 75
8.1 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.2 FutureWork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
A Arduinocode,RocketSegment 81
A.1 Arduino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
B Matlabcode 89
B.1 RocketAltitudeSimulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
B.2 CSVFileImporter,GroundSegment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
C Pythoncode,GroundSegment 93
C.1 .binto.csv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
D C++code,GroundSegment 95
E Drawings 101
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