A multiple model predictive scheme for fault-tolerant flight control design

Abstract

The model predictive control (MPC) strategy is used as a basic control law within the framework of multiple models, switching and tuning to design a reconfigurable flight control system. The controller described can explicitly take into account hard constraints on control inputs, and achieve acceptable flight performance in the presence of control effector freezing. To arrive at an effective reconfigurable control design, a new parametrization of the aircraft model in the presence of control effector freezing is suggested. It turned out that such a parametrization is well suited for use within the MPC framework. The overall multiple model predictive control scheme quickly identifies the nature and time instant of the failure, and carries out automatic reconfiguration of the control law achieving acceptable flight performance. The properties of our reconfigurable controller are evaluated through simulations of an F/A-18A aircraft carrier landing manoeuvre in the presence of critical control effector failures.