Optimal motion cueing algorithm for accelerating phase of manned spacecraft in human centrifuge

This paper presents a novel optimal Motion Cueing Algorithm (MCA) to control the rotations of a Human Centrifuge (HC) and achieve the best simulation of a SpaceCraft (SC) motion. Relations of the specific forces sensed by astronauts of the SC and the HC have been derived and linearized. A Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) controller is implemented for the problem which tends to minimize the error between the two sensed specific forces as well as control input in a cost function. It results in control inputs of the HC to generate its sensed specific force as close as possible to the one in the SC. The algorithm is implemented for both linearized and nonlinear portions of a US space shuttle mission trajectory as a verification using MATLAB. In longitudinal direction, the proposed MCA, works well when the acceleration is less than 2g in which the tracking error does not exceed 12%. In lateral direction the tracking is much better even in nonlinear region since the error remains less than 7% for tilting up to 50°. Finally, the effect of weight matrixes in the LQR cost function on overall weight and power of the HC motion system is discussed.