Flight Control with Distributed Effectors

Abstract

Recent developments in actuator technology have resulted in small, simple devices capable of afiecting the ∞ow fleld over ∞ight vehicles su‐ciently to generate control forces. One of the devices which has been under investigation is the Miniature-Trailing Edge Efiector (MiTE), which consists of a small, 1-5% chord, moveable surface mounted at the wing trailing edge. The high bandwidth and good control authority make the device an ideal candidate for control of both the rigid body and ∞exible modes of a ∞ight vehicle. Unfortunately traditional control techniques do not address the non-linear nature of the device or the competing performance goals arising from large numbers of distributed devices. Novel approaches to control design are therefore required. To demonstrate the potential of this type of ∞ight control architecture and to explore suitable control synthesis techniques, a remotely piloted ∞ight vehicle has been developed. This paper details the ∞ight vehicle including a distributed ∞ight control system based upon MiTEs. The latter system includes distributed sensing, logic, and actuation. This paper also describes an applicable novel control synthesis technique based upon the theory of collectives. The theory and its application to the design of distributed ∞ight control systems is presented. Results of ∞ight tests with conventional control surfaces and with a MiTE based control system are provided.