An H<sub>∞</sub> Design Approach for the Heading Hold Autopilot of a Flying Wing UAV

Abstract

The paper presents a modified loop shaping approach for the design of the automatic flight control system of an unmanned air vehicle’s lateral-directional dynamics. The design objectives include robust stabilization with respect to modeling uncertainties, heading angle tracking of an ideal model, coordinated turn and reduced sensitivity with respect to low frequency measurement errors. Based on the resulting full order controller one determined a reduced order controller. The numerical results show that both the full order and the reduced order autopilots accomplish the design objectives.