Guidance, Navigation and Control · Classical Feedback Control · M3-L2 · Intermediate
When the Gimbal Saturates
Bench log · Hopper on the test range
11:45. During a test, the operator typed a pitch command of 1 rad instead of 0.1. The gimbal went to its limit and stayed there for two seconds; when the angle finally reached the command, Hopper kept rotating and overshot it by almost half a radian.
You will see why, compare two ways of stopping it, and write the controller update that goes into the 50 Hz flight code.
Your task
Lab complete: post-mortem
You have passed every stage. Now connect it back to the theory and move on:
Output
What Python can I use?
Plain Python 3 with the standard library and the course library gnckit (import gnckit as g: transfer functions and margins, state space and LQR, the Hopper model, quaternions, a convex solver). NumPy is not available in the browser. Your code runs in a background worker: an endless loop is stopped after a few seconds and the page stays usable. It runs in your browser and is never sent anywhere.