Demonstration of CLIPS as an intelligent front-end for POST

Abstract

Most of the analysis codes used in the design of aerospace systems are complex, requiring some expertise to set up and execute. POST, which is used in many conceptual design studies to compute space vehicle performance characteristics, often encounters numerical difficulties in solving the defined trajectory problem. Usually POST fails to converge when its control variables are given a bad set of initial guesses, causing the trajectory to remain in the infeasible design region throughout the computations. The user then analyzes the output produced and relies on a set of heuristics, typically gained from experience with the program, to determine the appropriate modification to the problem setup that will guide POST in finding a feasible region and eventually converge to a solution.