Novel robust control framework for morphing aircraft

Abstract

This paper develops a robust control methodology for a class of morphing aircraft, which is called innovative control effector (ICE) aircraft. For the ICE morphing aircraft, the distributed arrays of hundreds of shape-change devices are employed to stabilize and maneuver the air vehicle. Because the morphing aircraft have the inherent uncertainty and varying dynamics due to the alteration of their configuration, a desired control performance can not be satisfied with a fixed feedback controller. Therefore, a novel control framework including an adaptive flight control law and an adaptive allocation algorithm is proposed. Firstly, a state feedback adaptive control law is designed to guarantee closed-loop stability and state tracking in the presence of uncertain dynamics caused by the wing shape change due to different flight missions. In the control allocation, many distributed arrays are managed in an optimal way to improve the robustness of the system. The scheme is used to an uncertain morphing aircraft model, and the simulation results demonstrate their performance.