UC Rocketry Project
Overview
The UC Rocketry Project is a research group run in conjunction with the University of Canterbury Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and supported by Rocket Lab Ltd, designing new rocket guidance and control algorithms. UC Rocketry has developed into an advanced aerospace engineering training program with Rocket Lab which consists of final year engineering special topic courses, summer projects, undergraduate research assistants, Masters of Engineering studies courses, Masters of Engineering and PhD postgraduate research. In the past few years UC Rocketry has also developed a space communications research program with NZ Space Operations.
Current Research Projects
UC Rocketry has been working on numerous projects, including development of supersonic rockets orbital trajectory optimisation, thrust vector control (TVC) and real-time modelling and control of slosh dynamics. These projects aim to improve on the robustness and efficiency of traditional trajectory calculation methods by incorporating the model predictive control previously developed in the project. UC Rocketry has also developed a TVC test platform for testing out control on the ground before implementation in flight and this platform has been used in a rocket course in 2019. An S-band transceiver and portable tracking antenna's are also currently under development in collaboration with NZ Space Operations.
Flight test of an aerodynamically unstable rocket
