Nonlinear and fault-tolerant flight control using multivariate splines

This paper presents a study on fault tolerant flight control of a high performance aircraft using multivariate splines. The controller is implemented by making use of spline model based adaptive nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI). This method, indicated as SANDI, combines NDI control with nonlinear control allocation based on an onboard...

An optimal control framework for estimating autopilot safety margins

This paper presents an optimal control framework to determine a collection of open-loop command signals that mathematically guarantees operation of an aircraft within certain prescribed state constraints. The framework is specifically applied to estimate margins for the reference command inputs of aircraft autopilot systems, so that safe...

Nonlinear Multivariate Spline-Based Control Allocation for High-Performance Aircraft

High performance flight control systems based on the nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI) principle require highly accurate models of aircraft aerodynamics. In general, the accuracy of the internal model determines to what degree the system nonlinearities can be canceled; the more accurate the model, the better the cancellation, and with that, the...