Adaptive and Variable Structure Control of Aircraft with Unknown High-Frequency Gain

This paper presents nonlinear adaptive and sliding-mode flight control systems for the roll-coupled maneuvers of aircraft. It is assumed that the parameters of the aircraft, as well as its high-frequency gain matrix, are unknown.Based on a back stepping design approach, nonlinear control laws (an adaptive variable structure control law and an adaptive control law) for the trajectory control of the roll angle, angle of attack, and sideslip angle using the aileron,elevator, and rudder are derived. The decomposition of the high-frequency gain matrix is used for the derivation of singularity-free flight control laws. An additional advantage of the control laws lies in the choice of design parameters of matrix decomposition for shaping the response characteristics. In the closed-loop system, the roll angle, angle of attack, and sideslip angle trajectories asymptotically follow the reference output trajectories. Simulation results are presented that show that in the closed-loop system, simultaneous longitudinal and lateral maneuvers are precisely performed in spite of the uncertainties in the aircraft parameters using each control system