FAULT TOLERANT CONTROL SYSTEM: QFT DESIGN

This paper addresses flight control system synthesis and the accommodation of controlled plant variation in an aircraft design envelope by using the frequency domain based quantitative feedback theory (QFT) robust control system design method. Plant variations considered include varying flight conditions in the flight envelope and damage to aerodynamic control surfaces. A robust flight control system is designed for the aircraft's longitudinal and lateral directional channels and validated with simulations containing nonlinear saturation elements. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US Government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the US.     

DESIGN OF AN AIR-TO-AIR AUTOMATIC REFUELING FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM USING QUANTITATIVE FEEDBACK THEORY

Quantitative feedback theory is developed for the design of an automatic station-keeping flight control system to regulate the position of an aircraft receiving fuel relative to the tanker aircraft during air-to-air refueling. A robust flight control system is designed for automating the station-keeping task. A simple outer loop feedback control system is developed that achieves stable position regulation in the presence of wind gusts and fuel transfer related disturbances. The modelling and analysis clearly show the usefulness of QFT in the design of flight control systems for aircraft with large structured parametric uncertainty. Linear and nonlinear simulations are performed to validate the design. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the US.     

An experimental study of pilots' control characteristics for flight of an STOL aircraft in backside of drag curve at approach and landing

Abstract

In general, most vehicles can be modelled by a multi-variable system which has interactive variables. It can be clearly shown that there is an interactive response in an aircraft's velocity and altitude obtained by stick control and/or throttle control. In particular, if the flight conditions fall to backside of drag curve in the flight of an STOL aircraft at approach and landing then the ratio of drag variation to velocity change has a negative value (ΔD/Δu<0) and the system of motion presents a non-minimum phase. Therefore, the interaction between velocity and altitude response becomes so complicated that it affects to pilot's control actions and it may be difficult to control the STOL aircraft at approach and landing.

In this paper, experimental results of a pilot's ability to control the STOL aircraft are presented for a multi-variable manual control system using a fixed ground base simulator and the pilot's control ability is discussed for the flight of an STOL aircraft at backside of drag curve at approach and landing.     

MODELLING AND CONTROL OF AN ELECTRO-HYDROSTATIC ACTUATOR

The control of a novel aerospace actuator is considered, viz., an electro-hydrostatic actuator. It offers a high degree of maintainability and combat survivability of the aircraft's flight control system because all the actuator's elements are collocated. The quantitative feedback theory robust control method is used to design a controller for this novel actuator. Parameter variation, sensor noise and flight condition variability are explicitly considered in the design process. The resulting design is not only robust with respect to actuator parameter variations and flight condition and insensitive to sensor noise, but, in addition, the controlled actuator's phase lag is significantly reduced, thus improving the performance of the overall flight control system. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was prepared under the auspices of the U.S. Government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the U.S.     

飞机俯仰运动自抗扰控制器设计

提出了利用自抗扰控制器在大包线范围内设计飞机俯仰运动控制器的新方法．利用二阶自抗扰控制器补偿系统模型扰动和外扰，实现了纵向运动俯仰角变量的跟踪控制．自抗扰控制器直接依据飞机的非线性模型，符合飞机动力学模型摄动大的特点，在很大的包线范围内不需要改变控制器的结构和参数，简化了飞行控制律的设计过程．大包线范围内的仿真结果表明，系统具有良好的动态和稳态性能，控制器具有很强的鲁棒性，为解决大包线范围内的飞行控制问题提供了一种有效的新途径．     

ROBUST LTV FEEDBACK SYNTHESIS FOR SISO NON-LINEAR PLANTS

Given a feedback system with uncertain nonlinear plant, it is required that the plant's output, to a set of command inputs, will satisfy certain specifications, i.e., will be bounded between a maximum response β(t) and a minimum response α(t). A rigorous synthesis technique to solve this problem using an LTV controller is developed. A design example is included, and it is shown that the LTV design has much lower bandwidth as compared to LTI designs. All design steps utilize the well-established QFT technique for LTI SISO uncertain systems. The methodology also suits rejection of disturbances at the plant's input or output, and for output specifications for nonzero initial conditions. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

弹性飞机的QFT控制器设计

以某弹性飞机纵向模型为例,考虑模型的不确定性及外部扰动,应用定量反馈理论设计了其俯仰姿态保持系统.仿真结果表明,利用该理论方法设计的控制器能很好地抑制弹性飞机的结构弹性变形,具有良好的鲁棒性,并取得了满意的控制效果,证明了该方法在弹性飞机控制律设计中的有效性和实用性.     

基于多环QFT的高超声速飞行器鲁棒控制

阐述了定量反馈理论(QFT)的基本原理和设计方法,针对超燃冲压发动机不同工作状态时高超声速飞行器不确定性模型,应用多环QFT设计了高超声速飞行器纵向飞行控制系统;仿真结果表明,运用QFT方法设计的控制系统不仅具有良好的跟踪性能和抗干扰性能,而且能够很好地解决飞行控制系统由于模型参数具有不确定性而造成的控制系统鲁棒性设计问题,并从工程应用角度为高超飞行器纵向飞行控制系统提供了一种鲁棒控制设计方案。     

基于多环QFT的飞行仿真转台鲁棒控制

阐述了定量反馈理论(QFT)的基本原理及设计方法,并给出了某型飞行仿真转台的QFT控制器设计实例。为了有效地抑制高频测量噪声对系统的干扰,以及避免系统的高频不确定性,在单环QFT控制的基础上,引入了基于多环QFT的鲁棒控制。理论分析和仿真实验表明,这种多环QFT控制可以明显地缩减控制器的带宽,使系统具有很强的抗高频测量噪声的性能,达到了理想的控制效果。该方法在转台的控制上取得了成功的应用,具有广泛的应用价值。     

基于QFT的无人机纵向飞行控制系统设计

介绍了定量反馈理论(QFT)的基本原理和设计步骤;定量反馈理论作为一种新颖的频率域鲁棒控制技术,综合考虑了对象的不确定性范围和系统的性能指标要求,以定量方式进行分析设计,从而保证了设计结果具有稳定鲁棒性和性能鲁棒性;无人机飞行过程中具有较强的不确定性,气动参数会不断发生变化,运用QFT对无人机纵向飞行控制系统进行设计,可以很好解决飞行控制系统中的不确定性问题;仿真结果显示,QFT设计的控制器能够很好地满足无人机鲁棒稳定性指标和跟踪性能,符合纵向控制的要求。     

Nonlinear generalised dynamic inversion for aircraft manoeuvring control

The nonlinear control problem of aircraft trajectory tracking is tackled in the framework of multiple linear time-varying constrained control using the newly developed paradigm of generalised dynamic inversion. The time differential forms of the multiple constraints encapsulate the control objectives, and are inverted to obtain the reference trajectory-realising control law. The inversion process utilises the Moore–Penrose generalised inverse and the associated nullspace projection, and it predictably involves the problematic generalised inversion singularity. Thus, a singularity avoidance scheme based on a new type of dynamically scaled generalised inverses is introduced that guarantees both asymptotically stable tracking and singularity avoidance. The steady-state closed-loop system allows for two inherently noninterfering control actions working towards a unified goal to exploit the aircraft's control authority over the entire state space. One control action is performed by the particular part of the control law on the range space of the transposed constraint matrix, and it works to impose the prescribed aircraft constrained dynamics. The other control action is performed by the auxiliary part of the control law on the complementary orthogonal nullspace of the constraint matrix, and it provides aircraft's global inner stability using the concept of perturbed feedback linearisation. Numerical simulations of an aggressive multiaxial aircraft coordinated manoeuvre verify the efficacy of designing nonlinear flight control systems via this methodology.     

Multi-input,multi-output flight control system design for the YF-16 using nonlinear QFT and pilot compensation

Nonlinear quantitative feedback theory (QFT) and pilot compensation techniques are used to design a 2 × 2 flight control system for the YF-16 aircraft over a large range of plant uncertainty. The design is based on numerical input-output time histories generated with a FORTRAN implemented nonlinear simulation of the YF-16. The first step of the design process is the generation of a set of equivalent linear time-invariant (LTI) plant models to represent the actual nonlinear plant. It has been proven that the solution to the equivalent plant problem is guaranteed to solve the original nonlinear problem. Standard QFT techniques are then used in the design synthesis based on the equivalent plant models. A detailed mathematical development of the method used to develop these equivalent LTI plant models is provided. After this inner-loop design, pilot compensation is developed to reduce the pilot's workload. This outer-loop design is also based on a set of equivalent LTI plant models. This is accomplished by modelling the pilot with parameters that result in good handling qualities ratings, and developing the necessary compensation to force the desired system responses.     

FUZZY SCHEDULING OF REGIONAL QFT CONTROLLERS

A novel optimization-based controller synthesis method is developed for nonlinear dynamic systems with structured parametric uncertainty. Fuzzy logic is used to smoothly schedule independently designed regional robust controllers over the plant's operational envelope. These linear controllers are synthesized using established conventional control design techniques, e.g., quantitative feedback theory. The resulting full envelope nonlinear dynamic controller handles complex dynamic systems which cannot otherwise be addressed by simple fuzzy logic control (FLC). An analytical representation of the membership functions of FLC allows the optimization to chose the location parameters of the regional controllers. The scheduled controller's valid region of operation is maximized, thus efficiently achieving full envelope operation, while guaranteeing pre-specified tracking performance. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US Government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the US.     

APPLICATION OF QFT TO CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN—AN OUTLINE FOR ENGINEERS

Control system design is an interdisciplinary and multistage process, and is not a sub-area of mathematics but rather an engineering endeavour. It behoves the engineer to reduce the real world control task to a tractable mathematical problem. The required simplifying assumptions and the attendant mathematical modelling effort require sound engineering knowledge and judgement. Furthermore, the mathematical solution of the control problem needs to be implemented, and the validity and applicability of the modelling assumptions need to be verified, by the engineer. Hence, in this paper the process of applying the QFT robust control system design method is presented from this broad perspective and it is shown that it is uniquely suited to address and solve engineering control system design problems. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US Government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the US.     

MIMO QFT CAD PACKAGE (VERSION 3)

The MIMO/QFT CAD package is capable of carrying through a multivariable control system robust design, for tracking and the rejection of external disturbance signals, from problem set-up to a frequency domain analysis of the compensated system. The package automates: the selection of the weighting matrix; the discretization of the plants; the formation of the square effective plants; the polynomial matrix inverse required to form the equivalent plants; the generation of templates; the selection of a nominal plant; the generation of stability, tracking, cross-coupling effects, external disturbance rejection, gamma and composite bounds; the loop shaping; and the design of the prefilter elements. This is followed by a frequency-domain analysis of the completed design, and export of this design to the MATLAB SIMULINK® toolbox in order to validate the frequency domain design by time-domain simulations. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US Government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the US.     

Multiobjective optimization–based fault‐tolerant flight control system design

The loss of measurements used for controller scheduling or envelope protection in modern flight control systems due to sensor failures leads to a challenging fault‐tolerant control law design problem. In this article, an approach to design such a robust fault‐tolerant control system, including full envelope protections using multiobjective optimization techniques, is proposed. The generic controller design and controller verification problems are derived and solved using novel multiobjective hybrid genetic optimization algorithms. These algorithms combine the multiobjective genetic search strategy with local, single‐objective optimization to improve convergence speed. The proposed strategies are applied to the design of a fault‐tolerant flight control system for a modern civil aircraft. The results of an industrial controller verification and validation campaign using an industrial benchmark simulator are reported.     

地效飞行器的纵向稳定性和增稳系统研究

针对地效飞行器因地面效应对纵向系统稳定性的影响,从系统稳定性定义和状态空间稳定判据两个方面,分析了地效飞行器的静稳定性判定条件,利用劳斯维茨判据分析了系统纵向模态的动稳定性,针对纵向动稳定性不足和高度稳定控制的问题,基于飞行包线内典型状态点处的线性模型,采用线性二次型调节器设计了系统的纵向增稳控制律,采用自抗扰控制设计了高度控制律。仿真结果表明,所设计的增稳控制律可以使系统稳定,且具有较强的鲁棒性,所设计的高度控制律使系统具有较强的动态性能,能够准确达到预定飞行高度并保持稳定,响应时间不超过15s。     

Flight envelope protection of aircraft using adaptive neural network and online linearisation

Flight envelope protection algorithm is proposed to improve the safety of an aircraft. Flight envelope protection systems find the control inputs to prevent an aircraft from exceeding structure/aerodynamic limits and maximum control surface deflections. The future values of state variables are predicted using the current states and control inputs based on linearised aircraft model. To apply the envelope protection algorithm for the wide envelope of the aircraft, online linearisation is adopted. Finally, the flight envelope protection system is designed using adaptive neural network and least-squares method. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed scheme.     

Immersion and invariance-based integrated guidance and control for unmanned aerial vehicle path following

An integrated guidance and control scheme is proposed on path following for the unmanned aerial vehicle. It is capable of handling the coupled non-linearities of the path's kinematics and the aircraft's dynamics independently. In the path coordinate, the guidance law is designed based on a nominal model, and the non-linearity of the path's kinematics is taken into full consideration. In the time coordinate, the flight control law is designed as a feed-forward controller, and it can guarantee the robustness of the guidance law with respect to the actual aircraft's dynamics. Instead of only employing Lyapunov method, the concept of immersion and invariance is also applied to explicitly analyse the stability in both time and path coordinates, and the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system can be guaranteed. What is more, the regulation-based and immersion-based adaptive technologies are synthetically utilised to handle the unknown parameters. Finally, the numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed integrated guidance and control scheme.