Model-Predictive Control of Flexible Aircraft using Nonlinear Reduced-Order Models

摘要

© 2016, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.This paper introduces an optimization-based load control strategy suitable for flexible vehicles with very flexible wings. A model for the coupled flight dynamics/aeroelastic response of the vehicle is built from geometrically-nonlinear beams using an intrinsic de- scription and a simple linear 2-D unsteady aerodynamic with no spanwise couplings. The resulting model has only quadratic nonlinearities and a balanced projection of the dynamic equations is then practicable and results in a much smaller model that retains the relevant nonlinear couplings. This is finally used to drive a model-predictive control designed to suppress wing oscillations in the response to atmospheric gusts. Results are presented on high-aspect-ratio flying wing undergoing moderately large excursions in the presence of discrete gusts. They demonstrate the performance of the nonlinear MPC in comparison to equivalent linear control schemes.