Design Of A Robust Flight Control System

In October 1994, 22 organisations throughout Europe accepted a challenge to solve a specific robust flight control design problem. The results of that design challenge, presented at the GARTEUR Specialists' Workshop in Toulouse, France in April 1997, are reported here. Two flight control benchmarks are considered, based on the automatic landing phase of a large cargo aircraft and on the control of a military aircraft. Methods applied include: classical control; multi-objective optimisation; eigenstructure assignment; modal multi-model approach; LQ, Lyapunov and H¿-techniques; ¿-synthesis; nonlinear dynamic inversion; robust inverse dynamics estimation; model predictive control and following; and fuzzy control. Involved in the definition of the benchmarks and the evaluation process have been representatives from the European aeronautical industry, bringing a strong link with flight control law design practice.

Manual flight control system design for fighter aircraft is one of the most demanding problems in automatic control. Fighter aircraft dynamics generally have highly coupled uncertain and nonlinear dynamics. Multivariable control design techniques offer a solution to this problem. Robust Multivariable Flight Control provides the background, theory and examples for full envelope manual flight control system design. It gives a versatile framework for the application of advanced multivariable control theory to aircraft control problems. Two design case studies are presented for the manual flight control of lateral/directional axes of the VISTA-F-16 test vehicle and an F-18 trust vectoring system. They demonstrate the interplay between theory and the physical features of the systems.

Robust and Adaptive Control shows the reader how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-dynamical systems. The text is a three-part treatment, beginning with robust and optimal linear control methods and moving on to a self-contained presentation of the design and analysis of model reference adaptive control (MRAC) for nonlinear uncertain dynamical systems. Recent extensions and modifications to MRAC design are included, as are guidelines for combining robust optimal and MRAC controllers. Features of the text include: · case studies that demonstrate the benefits of robust and adaptive control for piloted, autonomous and experimental aerial platforms; · detailed background material for each chapter to motivate theoretical developments; · realistic examples and simulation data illustrating key features of the methods described; and · problem solutions for instructors and MATLAB® code provided electronically. The theoretical content and practical applications reported address real-life aerospace problems, being based on numerous transitions of control-theoretic results into operational systems and airborne vehicles that are drawn from the authors’ extensive professional experience with The Boeing Company. The systems covered are challenging, often open-loop unstable, with uncertainties in their dynamics, and thus requiring both persistently reliable control and the ability to track commands either from a pilot or a guidance computer. Readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value.

With many of the modern aircraft designed to be larger and lighter, there have been increasing interests in incorporating the structure mode when designing flight control system. Sliding mode control (SMC) is an approach to the design of control systems that shows significant robustness in the presence of large uncertainties in plant dynamics. In this study, formalized Multi-Input Mult-Output (MIMO) SMC based robust fight control system design procedure was introduced and presented. The study vehicle was selected to be the B-1 bomber, a highly flexible aircraft. The multi-input multi-output SMC design procedure was carried out using the study vehicle model. The structure modes of the aircraft was addressed. Finally, a pilot model was included to evaluate the robustness of the SMC design.

Shows readers how to exploit the capabilities of the MATLAB® Robust Control and Control Systems Toolboxes to the fullest using practical robust control examples.

Classical design and analysis techniques, many of which date back to the 1950's, are still predominantly used in the aerospace industry for the design and analysis of automatic flight control and aero-engine control systems. The continued success and popularity of these techniques is particularly impressive considering the radical advances in aircraft and spacecraft design and avionics technology made over this period. Clearly, an understanding of both the advantages and limitations of these methods is essential in order to properly evaluate the likely usefulness of more modern techniques for the design and analysis of aerospace control systems. One of the themes of this book is that the multivariable robust control methods it describes are logical and natural extensions of the more classical methods, and not replacements for them. It is assumed that readers of this publication are already familiar with classical flight control techniques. Emphasis is on the philosophy, advantages and limitations of the classical approach to flight control system design and analysis. Abstracted in Inspec

Annotation Bridging the gap between academic research and real-world applications, this reference on modern flight control methods for fixed-wing aircraft deals with fundamentals of flight control systems design, then concentrates on applications based on the modern control methods used in the latest aircraft. The book is written for practicing engineers who are new to the aviation industry, postgraduate students in strategic or applied research, and advanced undergraduates. Some knowledge of classical control is assumed. Pratt is a member of IEEE and is UK Member for AIAA's Technical Committee on Guidance, Navigation and Control. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)