System and method for divert and attitude control in flight vehicles

[0015]The following Detailed Description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any theory presented in the preceding Background or the following Detailed Description.

[0016]A system and method is provided for thruster control in a flight vehicle. The system and method uses a proportional derivative control technique to determine thrust commands in a Divert and Attitude control (DAC) system. In general, the proportional derivative technique uses feedback of the quaternion of the attitude error and angular velocity to globally stabilize the attitude of a ridged body. Additionally, angular velocity feedback is provided by a nonlinear filter of the quaternion, thus removing the need for direct angular velocity measurement. The proportional derivative control system is configured to receive pitch, roll and yaw commands as inputs, and generate thrust commands as o