What is control system? Control systems are commonly known as automatic systems, it is an interconnection of components connected or related in such a manner as to command, direct, or regulate itself or another system. A cruise control in your car is a control system, in the simple case it consists of a sensor that measures speed, an actuator that does work on the accelerator and a processing unit or the 'brain' to do the decision making or the maths. The rapid developments of control systems have greatly enhanced us to do things faster, increased accuracy, longer period of time without stopping and so on. Imagine you are driving a car at 500km/h, would you be able to control it? Would Michael Schumacher?

he aim of our project is to study the dynamics of hypersonic air vehicles and to assess the design of control systems for such vehicles compare with that for more conventional air vehicles. Hypersonic airplanes are those that fly at the speed that exceed 5 times the speed of sound. The main subject of the study is the X-15, a rocket-powered airplane designed to fly at hypersonic speeds and extreme altitudes. by deriving a mathematical description for the air vehicle so that a computer can be used as the 'brain' in our control system; and investigation into the design of control systems using various control theories based on the derived mathematical model. at the end of the project, we hope to gain useful and applicable knowledge in the area of hypersonic flight control.

Dr Kelvin Halsey, Khoi Yan Wong, William Lin