Output tracking control of an aircraft subject to additive state dependent disturbance: an optimal control approach

Abstract

In this paper, model reference output feedback tracking control of an aircraft subject to additive, uncertain, nonlinear disturbances is considered. In order to present the design steps in a clear fashion: first, the aircraft dynamics is temporarily assumed as known with all the states of the system available. Then a feedback linearizing controller minimizing a performance index while only requiring the output measurements of the system is proposed. As the aircraft dynamics is uncertain and only the output is available, the proposed controller makes use of a novel uncertainty estimator. The stability of the closed loop system and global asymptotic tracking of the proposed method are ensured via Lyapunov based arguments, asymptotic convergence of the controller to an optimal controller is also established. Numerical simulations are presented in order to demonstrate the feasibility and performance of the proposed control strategy.