Adaptive Control of Flight: Applications, Theory, and Open
Problems

Eugene Lavretsky, Ph.D.
Technical Fellow
The Boeing Company, Phantom Works

This presentation consists of two parts. First, aerospace applications of direct adaptive model reference control are discussed, related to control of advanced aircraft and weapon systems. Recent extensions of this design, primarily driven by practical considerations, have led to very successful flight testing and transition to USAF munitions production programs. The flight control architectures considered incorporate direct adaptive increments to augment a baseline control signal designed using nonlinear and/or linear robust control methods. Recently applied to a modified guided weapon, this adaptive flight control system was designed and flight tested without wind tunnel measurement of any aerodynamic changes to the modified weapon. Subsequently, the system was successfully transitioned to USAF production programs.


The 2nd part of this presentation is theoretical. It is devoted to adaptive tracking control for multi-input uncertain systems, with nonlinear-in-control dynamics, and matched uncertainties. Design of tracking controllers is introduced using time-scale separation methods and direct model reference adaptive control. Sufficient conditions are stated that guarantee closed-loop stability, bounded tracking, and uniform ultimate boundedness of all the signals.


The presentation ends with overview of the adaptive control design methodology, its practical considerations, and extensions incorporated, as well as open problems that remain in making this approach acceptable in the aerospace community.

<http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~wgm/cds/incoming/lavretsky/2007/Adaptive_Control_of_Flight_Lavretsky.pdf>