Backstepping control based onL1adaptive theory for large transport aircraft heavy load airdrop

Pengchao Zhang

doi:10.1177/1729881417749483

Abstract

A study of the L1adaptive controller is conducted based on the backstepping method for the model of large transport aircraft with drastic changes appearing in heavy load airdrop process. The system is divided into an attitude subsystem and a velocity subsystem. For the attitude subsystem, the backstepping control is used to design the virtual control of path angle and the pitch angle in external loop with the L1adaptive controller designed in internal loop to estimate the uncertainties and disturbances in the subsystem and to compensate them. In the stability analysis, the uniform boundedness of all signals in the closed-loop system is proven. Simulation results show that the proposed control method preserves the quick dynamic torque response, high efficiency, and robustness in heavy load airdrop; to some extent it can alleviate the control switch lead or lag problem and ensure the safety of the transport aircraft to fulfill the complete airdrop mission.

Highlights

Large air transport and precision airdrop plays an important role in military and rescue operation, with the airdrop ability being an important indicator of national defense force and the significant means for rapid response and long distance maneuvers in a modern war.the robust and precise airdrop is difficult to carry out due to model mutation occurring especially during the large transport heavy drop
The aircraft controller cannot be switched accurately during airdrop, that is to say, the switch can occur either ahead or lagged, causing intense oscillation or machine apart. This problem belongs to the mutation model control,[1,2,3] and it is necessary to solve it properly for the safety of large transport aircrafts
In the study by Jann,[8] the general military airdrop process of longitudinal channel is simulated, with the influence of airdrop on the flight control system studied by Chen et al.[6,9]

Summary

Introduction

Large air transport and precision airdrop plays an important role in military and rescue operation, with the airdrop ability being an important indicator of national defense force and the significant means for rapid response and long distance maneuvers in a modern war.the robust and precise airdrop is difficult to carry out due to model mutation occurring especially during the large transport heavy drop. For the instability of control system by model mutation during the ultra low altitude airdrop, this article presents a method combined with backstepping and the L1 adaptive method for obtaining the robust and precision airdrop. The backstepping method is used for the controller of track angle and pitching angle in the attitude subsystem.

Results

Conclusion