Abstract
In this paper, a controller combining backstepping and adaptive supertwisting sliding mode control method is proposed for altitude and velocity tracking control of air-breathing hypersonic vehicles (AHVs). Firstly, the nonlinear longitudinal model of AHV is introduced and transformed into a strict feedback form, to which the backstepping method can be applied. Considering the longitudinal trajectory tracking control problem (altitude control and velocity control), the altitude tracking control system is decomposed to several one-order subsystems based on the backstepping method, and an adaptive supertwisting sliding mode controller is designed for each subsystem, in order to obtain the virtual control variables and actual control input. Secondly, the overall stability of the closed-loop system is proved by the Lyapunov stability theory. At last, the simulation is carried out on an AHV model. The results show that the proposed controller has good control performances and good robustness in the parameter perturbation case.
Highlights
An air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (AHV) as a kind of vehicle can cruise at a speed larger than 5 Mach in a near-space area
As far as we know, the modelling of AHV in most papers mainly relies on aerodynamic theory and CFD technology, and the lack of actual aerodynamic data of AHV in a nearspace area can lead to inevitable modelling errors [4, 5]
A controller combining the backstepping method and adaptive supertwisting sliding mode control algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of altitude and velocity tracking control of AHV with parameter uncertainties and disturbances
Summary
An air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (AHV) as a kind of vehicle can cruise at a speed larger than 5 Mach in a near-space area. It has attracted much attention of researchers from all over the world because of its high military application value [1,2,3]. The flight control of AHV is still a challenging task. Considering the strong nonlinearity, coupling, parameter uncertainties, and external disturbances of AHV, the controller is required to be highly robust and have rapid response to the model uncertainties. A large flight envelope leads to strong nonlinear characteristics of AHV. The above factors require the AHV controller to have strong robustness
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