Towards Certifiable Advanced Flight Control Systems, A Sensor Based Backstepping Approach

This paper uses singular perturbation theory in order to design a backstepping control system. Earlier applications using singular perturbation theory for control of non-affine systems exist, but here the focus is shifted to uncertain systems. Dealing with uncertainties in this way could be a major benefit for certification of advanced control...

Level Set Method Based on Interval Analysis

Level set methods are used to determine the reachable set for a given time domain. In the aerospace industry level set methods are used to determine for example flight envelopes. A new level set method is presented which uses interval analysis to give guaranteed bounds on the solution. Unlike the current grid-based methods the new method does...

Adaptive Optimizing Nonlinear Control Design for an Over-actuated Aircraft Model

In this paper nonlinear adaptive flight control laws based on the backstepping approach are proposed which are applicable to over-actuated nonlinear systems. Instead of solving the control allocation exactly, update laws for the desired control effector signals are defined such that they converge to the optimal solution. Stability and...

Adaptive Backstepping Control and Safety Analysis for Modern Fighter Aircraft

There exist many examples of aircraft incidents in which the pilots have successfully used the remaining control authority over an aircraft to save the airframe and its passengers and cargo from apparently hopeless failure conditions. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Several accidents happened in which the crew was not able to save the...

Immersion and Invariance Based Nonlinear Adaptive Flight Control

In this paper a theoretical framework for nonlinear adaptive flight control is developed and applied to a simplified, over-actuated nonlinear fighter aircraft model. The framework is based on a modular adaptive backstepping scheme with a new type of nonlinear estimator. The nonlinear estimator is constructed using an invariant manifold based...

Full Envelope Modular Adaptive Control of a Fighter Aircraft using Orthogonal Least Squares

A new adaptive nonlinear flight controller is designed for a high fidelity, six degrees of freedom F-16 model for the entire flight envelope. The design is based on a modular approach which separates the design of the control law and the online identifier. The control law design is based on backstepping with nonlinear damping terms to robustify...