Pitot Tube Avionics

As a committed member of the University of Minnesota’s Rocket Team, I played a key role in designing the electrical hardware for our IREC rocket’s pitot tube system, focusing on the sensor card and power card. The sensor card, equipped with six high-accuracy analog pressure sensors, pairs with an ultra-low-noise power card to deliver precise measurements of the rocket’s Mach number and angle of attack. To ensure reliability at high altitudes, I developed a MATLAB program to simulate expected pitot-static sensor readings across the flight trajectory. This analysis helped establish the maximum allowable electrical noise from the power card and the necessary resolution for the analog-to-digital converter, optimizing system accuracy.