Fuzzy controller design for automatic carrier landing of aircraft

Abstract

For the uncertain impact of ship air wake and deck motion to the landing process, the traditional automatic carrier landing system lacks flexibility and accuracy. This paper designs fuzzy controller for automatic carrier landing of aircraft. The application examined is a F/A-18 Fuzzy Logic Automatic Carrier Landing System (FACLS). The FACLS has seven inputs, two outputs, and several hundred fuzzy rules. The fuzzy rules are distributed among four rule bases that are embedded in a classical control structure. The use of fuzzy controller was different from many applications since fuzzy logic is used not only to model a set of human rules, but to combine the best features of human and automatic control approaches that cannot be easily accommodated in conventional control systems. The FACLS is tested in simulation and compared with the conventional F/A-18 Automatic Carrier Landing System. Results suggest that fuzzy controller could reduce the aircraft's landing error and improve the landing quality.