Robust Adaptive Control of a General Aviation Aircraft

Abstract

In this paper, an application of newly developed modified state observer (MSO) based adaptive controller for the control of longitudinal dynamics of a general aviation (GA) aircraft is considered. The proposed controller structure uses nonlinear dynamic inversion to decouple the flight controls and to modify the handling qualities of the aircraft. The inversion error caused by modeling inaccuracies is compensated for by a real time robust adaptive control algorithm. The modeling inaccuracies can stem from the differences between the model used for the inversion controller and the actual aircraft which may have some impairment such as inadequate thrust delivery, improper functioning of the control surfaces or in-flight hardware failure. In all the cases the adaptive control algorithm should be able to rapidly adapt to the changing aircraft behavior and restore acceptable aircraft performance. In order to tackle this problem, the recently developed MSO methodology is employed which allows for fast adaptation without inducing any high frequency oscillations in the control signals. Simulations were carried out by introducing unanticipated failures in both trimmed and controlled flight conditions. Aeroelastic modes have also been included. This paper presents the results obtained and the analysis carried out. © 2010 by Karthikeyan Rajagopal and S.N. Balakrishnan.

Meeting Name

AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference 2010 (2010: Aug. 2-5, Toronto, ON)

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2010 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

05 Aug 2010

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