No abstract

Personal air transportation utilizing small aircraft is a market that is expected to grow significantly in the future. For this segment, "stick and rudder" related accidents should be mitigated to guide this process in a safe manner. Instead of downscaling advanced and expensive fly-by-wire platforms that incorporate flight envelope protection found in commercial aircraft, a low cost solution should be considered. This paper focuses on a flight envelope protection system for small aircraft, to allow carefree maneuvering for the less experienced pilot. Preliminary results are obtained from an empirical comparison study in the time domain, between a PID based control limiting approach, a command limiting approach and a constrained Flight Control Law (FCL) approach using Model-based Predictive Control (MPC), with and without parametric model uncertainties. Investigation of the results reveals that, for this study, command limiting and MPC should be preferred over control limiting and that the practicality of command limiting outweighs the small performance increase of MPC.

Recently, an incremental type sensor based backstepping (SBB) control approach, based on singular perturbation theory and Tikhonov's theorem, has been proposed. This Lyapunov function based method uses measurements of control variables and less model knowledge, and it is not susceptible to the model uncertainty caused by fault scenarios. In this paper, the SBB method has been implemented on a fixed wing aircraft with its focus on handling structural changes caused by damages.

Personal air transportation utilizing small aircraft is a market that is expected to grow significantly in the future. For this segment, "stick and rudder" related accidents should be mitigated to guide this process in a safe manner. Instead of downscaling advanced and expensive fly-by-wire platforms that incorporate flight envelope protection found in commercial aircraft, a low cost solution should be considered. This paper focuses on a flight envelope protection system for small aircraft, to allow carefree maneuvering for the less experienced pilot. Preliminary results are obtained from an empirical comparison study in the time domain, between a PID based control limiting approach, a command limiting approach and a constrained Flight Control Law (FCL) approach using Model-based Predictive Control (MPC), with and without parametric model uncertainties. Investigation of the results reveals that, for this study, command limiting and MPC should be preferred over control limiting and that the practicality of command limiting outweighs the small performance increase of MPC.

No abstract

This paper uses singular perturbation theory in order to design a backstepping control system. Earlier applications using singular perturbation theory for control of non-affine systems exist, but here the focus is shifted to uncertain systems. Dealing with uncertainties in this way could be a major benefit for certification of advanced control laws. The reason for this is twofold. First, the backstepping construct, using Lyapunov functions, guarantees the stability of the controlled system. Second, by using measurements of the state derivatives rather than relying on perfect knowledge of the system, a major drawback of backstepping is removed: the need for adaptation to uncertain parameters or unknown model structure. As this method bears resemblance to sensor based nonlinear dynamic inversion, the control law developed in this paper will be referred to as sensor based backstepping. Preliminary results for systems with uncertainty and sensor noise look very promising and future investigation into the effects of time-delays is needed.

No abstract

Recently, an incremental type sensor based backstepping (SBB) control approach, based on singular perturbation theory and Tikhonov's theorem, has been proposed. This Lyapunov function based method uses measurements of control variables and less model knowledge, and it is not susceptible to the model uncertainty caused by fault scenarios. In this paper, the SBB method has been implemented on a fixed wing aircraft with its focus on handling structural changes caused by damages.