Evolutionary Design of Robust Flight Control for a Hypersonic Aircraft by

The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of the author’s knowledge and belief, original and the author’s own, except as acknowledged by reference or otherwise. None of the material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted, either in whole or in part, for a degree at The University of Queensland or any other institution. All of the simulation software referred to in this thesis is original and was written by the thesis author, except where acknowledged. Kevin J. Austin An evolutionary design approach is used to construct an autopilot for a hypersonic air-breathing aircraft. Flight control for this class of vehicle is an extremely challenging problem due to the combination of nonlinear dynamics, parametric uncertainty and com-plex constraints. Consequently, simultaneous control over the flight path, aerodynamic attitude and propulsion is required. This thesis develops and applies a design procedure which can explicitly address the challenges of hypersonic flight control. The principal computational results of this the