A Multi-Model Architecture Based on Deep Learning for Longitudinal Available Overload Prediction of Commercial Subsonic Aircraft with Actuator Faults

Abstract

Assessing the real-time longitudinal available overload onboard under fault conditions offers vital insights for the fault-tolerant reconfiguration and trajectory planning of commercial subsonic aircraft. After actuator failures in a commercial subsonic aircraft, its aerodynamic model undergoes changes. Traditional methods based on analytical models rely on precise aerodynamic models. However, due to the complexities of the flight environment and uncertainties in disturbances, establishing an accurate aerodynamic model after actuator failures is often challenging. Consequently, traditional methods can yield significant errors when evaluating the available overload under actuator faults. To address this, we introduce a multi-model architecture based on deep learning for the longitudinal available overload prediction of a commercial subsonic aircraft with actuator faults. For flight state data under different working conditions and different faults, Spearman correlation coefficient analysis and the gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) algorithm are used to remove redundant feature parameters, thereby enhancing the training and prediction speed of the model while reducing the risk of overfitting. To meet prediction accuracy and speed demands, we employ the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) deep learning network to fully explore the environmental features, including uncertainties and disturbances, within the flight state, and the mapping relationships between the flight state and the available overload variations. We incorporate the light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) and the categorical boosting (CatBoost) algorithms to enhance the model’s prediction speed and fuse it with a longitudinal available overload analytical model to elevate the model’s prediction accuracy, thereby achieving the real-time estimation of the commercial subsonic aircraft’s longitudinal available overload with actuator faults. The results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a higher accuracy than traditional methods, with a relative error of less than 5%.