Piecewise linear control allocation for flying wing UAV

Abstract

A piecewise linear control allocation approach was presented for the solution of the non-linear control allocation problem for flying wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The presented approach utilizes the piecewise linear assumption for the control effector moment data. This assumption allows the non-linear control allocation problem to be cast as a piecewise linear program. In order to solve the piecewise linear program, it was re-formulated as a mixed-integer linear program. The discussed mixed-integer linear programs were implemented in a nonlinear Simulink simulation of a flying wing UAV landing phase. The analysis of the simulation results showed that the piecewise linear program approach results in improved tracking performance when compared to a more traditional control allocation approach that uses a linear approximation of the control moments, especially when the aircraft is subjected to control effector failures.