Intrumentation and control of electromagnetic launchers
Abstract
The instrumentation and control of electromagnetic launch technology is presented. All of the experimental work and theory presented refer to one specific type of launcher know as a railgun. Two railgun projects supported by the AFOSR are described. One is an STTR phase 1 contract to develop a fast transient control system for solid state switching of numerous capacitor banks for implementation on a railgun. The other is a MURI project in collaboration with the IAT at the University of Texas for low cost access to launch micro-satellites into orbit. A project goal for both funded projects was to design and test control systems for the application of multi-stage railgun timing control. This relatively new area of railgun research is attributed to the need for complex multi-stage systems. The paper starts with control systems for proof of principle solid armature experiments and ends with a controlled asynchronous free-running arc distributed energy system.