ℒ₁ adaptive controller for tailless unstable aircraft in the presence of unknown actuator failures

Abstract

This article considers application of ℒ₁ adaptive controller to multi-input multi-output open loop unstable unmanned military aircraft. The control is designed to accommodate and to be robust to actuator failures as well as to pitch break uncertainty, which is used to model uncertain aerodynamics. Results of using the ℒ₁ adaptive controller are compared with the conventional model reference adaptive control scheme to show improved transient command tracking as well as guaranteed time-delay margin.

Keywords:

• adaptive control
• transient performance
• guaranteed time-delay margin
• flight control

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the United States Air Force under Contracts No. FA8650-05-C-3563, FA9550-05-1-0157, FA9550-04-C-0047 and ONR under Contract N00014-05-1-0828. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Air Force and ONR.