Robust crossfeed design for hovering rotorcraft

Control law design for rotorcraft fly-by-wire systems normally attempts to decouple the angular responses using fixed-gain crossfeeds. This approach can lead to poor decoupling over the frequency range of pilot inputs and increase the load on the feedback loops. In order to improve the decoupling performance, dynamic crossfeeds should be adopted. Moreover, because of the large changes that occur in the aircraft dynamics due to small changes about the nominal design condition, especially for near-hovering flight, the crossfeed design must be ‘robust’. A new low-order matching method is presented here to design robust crossfeed compensators for multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) systems. The technique minimizes cross-coupling given an anticipated set of parameter variations for the range of flight conditions of concern. Results are presented in this paper of an analysis of the pitch/roll coupling of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in near-hovering flight. A robust crossfeed is designed that shows significant improvement in decoupling perfomance and robustness over the fixed-gain or single point dynamic compensators. The design method and results are presented in an easily used graphical format that lends significant physical insight to the design procedure. This plant precompensation technique is an appropriate preliminary step to the design of robust feedback control laws for rotorcraft.     

An acceleration measurements-based approach for helicopter nonlinear flight control using Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion

Due to the inherent instabilities and nonlinearities of rotorcraft dynamics, its changing properties during flight and the engineering difficulties to predict its aerodynamics with high levels of fidelity, helicopter flight control requires the application of special strategies. These strategies must allow to cope with the nonlinearities of the system and assure robustness in the presence of inaccuracies and changes in configuration.In this paper, a novel approach based on an Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion is applied to simplify the design of helicopter flight controllers. With this strategy, by employing the feedback of acceleration measurements to avoid the need for information relative to any aerodynamic change, the control system does not need any model data that depends exclusively on its states, thus enhancing its robustness to model uncertainties.The overall control system is tested by simulating two tasks with distinct agility levels as described in the ADS-33 helicopter handling qualities standard. The analysis shows that the controller provides an efficient tracking of the commanded references. Furthermore, with the robustness properties verified within the range of inaccuracies expected to be found in reality, this novel method seems to be eligible for a potential practical implementation to helicopter vehicles.     

A unified approach to output synchronization of heterogeneous multi-agent systems via L2-gain design

In this paper, a unified design procedure is given for output synchronization of heterogeneous multi-agent systems (MAS) on communication graph topologies, using relative output measurements from neighbors. Three different control protocols, namely, full-state feedback, static output-feedback, and dynamic output-feedback, are designed for output synchronization. It is seen that a unified design procedure for heterogeneous MAS can be given by formulation and solution of a suitable local $\mathcal{L}{_2}$-gain design problem. Sufficient conditions are developed in terms of stabilizing the local agents'' dynamics, satisfying a certain small-gain criterion, and solving the output regulator equations. Local design procedures are presented for each agent to guarantee that these sufficient conditions are satisfied. The proposed control protocols require only one copy of the leader''s dynamics in the compensator, regardless of the dimensions of the outputs. This results in lower-dimensional compensators for systems with high-order outputs, compared to the $p$-copy internal model approach. All three proposed control protocols are verified using numerical simulations.     

H Optimal control for linear stochastic systems

The aim of the present paper is to provide an optimal solution to the H² state-feedback and output-feedback control problems for stochastic linear systems subjected both to Markov jumps and to multiplicative white noise. It is proved that in the state-feedback case the optimal solution is a static gain which is also optimal in the class of all higher-order controllers. In the output-feedback case the optimal H² controller has the same order as the given stochastic system. The realization of the optimal controllers depend on the stabilizing solutions of some appropriate systems of Riccati-type coupled equations. An effective iterative convergent algorithm to compute these stabilizing solutions is also presented. The paper gives some illustrative numerical example allowing to compare the results obtained by the proposed design approach with the ones presented in the recent control literature.     

A New Nonlinear Controller for Trajectory Tracking of the Longitudinal Dynamics of a Small Scale Helicopter

A nonlinear control scheme is proposed for the trajectory tracking problem of a small scale helicopter’s longitudinal dynamics. The control scheme is based on a control design procedure that constructs static feedback regulators for nonlinear systems which are linearizable by dynamic feedback. Besides, the flatness characteristics of the helicopter’s longitudinal dynamics are used to design the desired trajectory. The controller proposed is based on the longitudinal model of the small scale helicopter including the main rotor and stabilizer bar dynamics. Sufficient conditions are given to guarantee asymptotic convergence to zero of the tracking error and to keep the main rotor thrust always negative assuming that all the helicopter’s parameters are known and that all helicopter’s states are measured. Numerical simulations are given to show the performance of the controller in the presence of the main rotor and stabilizer bar dynamics.     

Terrain Avoidance Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Autonomous Rotorcraft

This paper describes a terrain avoidance control methodology for autonomous rotorcraft applied to low altitude flight. A simple nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) formulation is used to adequately address the terrain avoidance problem, which involves stabilizing a nonlinear and highly coupled dynamic model of a helicopter, while avoiding collisions with the terrain as well as preventing input and state saturations. The physical input saturations are made intrinsic to the model, such that the control is always admissible and the MPC design is simplified. A comparison of several optimization approaches is provided, where the performance of the traditional gradient method with fixed step is compared with the quasi-Newton method and a line search algorithm. The simulation results show that the adopted strategy achieves good performance even when the desired path is on collision course with the terrain.     

Digital tracker with output feedback: application to aircraft controls

A linear-quadratic output-feedback approach is given for designing digital servo-control systems of specified structure. The result is digital controllers that have a sensible structure based on classical control theory, in contrast to standard LQR design using state feedback plus an observer. The correct initial conditions for determining the LQ tracker output-feedback gains are not uniformly distributed as is traditionally assumed, but are shown to be explicitly given in terms of the step command magnitude. Both pole and zero placement are used to optimize the performance index. Arbitrary systems are treated, not only those with integrators in the forward paths, by adding a term to the performance index that weights the steady-state error. The approach works even if the system is non-minimum-phase. Necessary conditions are derived that may be used in a gradient-based routine to determine the optimal digital control gains. The approach does not rely on redesign of a continuous control system using techniques like the bilinear transformation, but uses direct discrete-time design. An aircraft digital command augmentation system is included as a sample design.     

A new static output feedback approach to the suboptimal mixed H2/H∞ problem

In this paper we propose a new approach to solve the static output feedback suboptimal mixed H₂/H_∞ control problem using a state fixed‐structure feedback design. We formulate the static output feedback problem as a constrained static state feedback problem and obtain three coupled design equations: one Riccati equation, one Lyapunov equation, and a gain equation. We will prove the equivalence of the proposed solution to the existing solution. A very simple iterative algorithm is then presented to solve the design equations for the stabilizing output feedback gain that minimizes an upper bound of H₂ norm while satisfying the H_∞ disturbance attenuation requirement. A unique feature of the new approach is that it admits the Kalman gain as an initial stabilizing gain to start the above iterative solution procedure, which is computationally attractive and advantageous compared to the direct approach, as the latter has to deal with the difficult algorithm initialization problem. Some illustrative numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative Results on Stabilization of the Quad-rotor Rotorcraft Using Bounded Feedback Controllers

In the recent years autonomous flying vehicles are being increasingly used in both civil and military areas. With the advancement of the technology it has become possible to test efficiently and cost-effectively different autonomous flight control concepts and design variations using small-scale aerial vehicles. In this paper the stabilization problem of the quad-rotor rotorcraft using bounded feedback controllers is investigated. Five different types of nonlinear feedback laws with saturation elements, previously proposed for global control of systems with multiple integrators, are applied and tested to control the quad-rotor rotorcraft roll and pitch angles. The results obtained from autonomous flight simulations and real time experiments with the Draganflyer V Ti four-rotor mini-rotorcraft are analyzed with respect to the structural simplicity of the control schemes and the transient performance of the closed-loop system.     

Nonlinear sliding sector design for multi‐input systems with application to helicopter control

The ability of helicopters to hover and land vertically has spurred an interesting field of research on the development of autonomous flight for these rotatory wing aircrafts. Linear control theory with gain scheduling, which is based on linearizing the system at the equilibrium points, dominated the helicopter autopilot design. Unlike the linear cascaded autopilot structure used in the existing literature, this paper uses state‐dependent linear like structure, including rate‐limited actuator dynamics, with cascaded autopilot topology. This approach allows nonlinear control laws to be implemented throughout the entire flight envelope, providing satisfactory robustness and stability over the various parameter uncertainties and time delays. The cascaded autopilot topology with nonlinear dynamical equations contains a new sliding sector control (SSC) mechanism which is derived for multi‐input nonlinear dynamical systems. The proposed SSC structure for multi‐input nonlinear systems is used in the inner loop of the cascaded autopilot system where the fastest dynamics are required to be controlled for rapid changes in the helicopter dynamical characteristics which enables one to stabilize the helicopter over a wide range of flight conditions. The proposed cascaded autopilot topology with the new SSC mechanism is tested in simulations to assess its robustness and stability properties. To establish its feasibility, the proposed control method is replaced with a suboptimal control method, namely state‐dependent differential Riccati equation (SDDRE) method, for the inner loop and the results of the proposed control architecture are compared with those of SDDRE method.     

Feedback control design with vibration suppression for flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles

This paper investigates the problem of feedback control design with vibration suppression for a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle （FAHV）. FAHV includes intricate coupling between the engine and flight dynamics, as well as complex interplay between flexible and rigid modes, which results in an intractable system for the control design. In this paper, a longitudinal model, which is described by a coupled system of ordinary differential equations （ODEs） and partial differential equations （PDEs）, is adopted. Firstly, a linearized ODE model for the rigid part is established around the trim condition, while vibration of the fuselage is described by PDEs. Secondly, based on the Lyapunov direct method, a control law via ODE state feedback and PDE boundary output feedback is designed for the system such that the closed-loop exponential stability is ensured. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.     

Design and implementation of an autonomous flight control law for a UAV helicopter

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of an autonomous flight control law for a small-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter. The approach is decentralized in nature by incorporating a newly developed nonlinear control technique, namely the composite nonlinear feedback control, together with dynamic inversion. The overall control law consists of three hierarchical layers, namely, the kernel control, command generator and flight scheduling, and is implemented and verified in flight tests on the actual UAV helicopter. The flight test results demonstrate that the UAV helicopter is capable of carrying out complicated flight missions autonomously.     

Audio steganography with AES for real-time covert voice over internet protocol communications

As a popular real-time service on the Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol （VoIP） communication attracts more and more attention from the researchers in the information security field. In this study, we proposed a VoIP steganographic algorithm with variable embedding capacities, incorporating AES and key distribution, to realize a real-time covert VoIP communication. The covert communication system was implemented by embedding a secret message encrypted with symmetric cryptography AES-128 into audio signals encoded by PCM codec. At the beginning of each VoIP call, a symmetric session key （SK） was assigned to the receiver with a session initiation protocol-based authentication method. The secret message was encrypted and then embedded into audio packets with different embedding algorithms before sending them, so as to meet the real- time requirements of VolP communications. For each audio packet, the embedding capacity was calculated according to the specific embedding algorithm used. The encryption and embedding processes were almost synchronized. The time cost of encryption was so short that it could be ignored. As a result of AES-based steganography, observers could not detect the hidden message using simple statistical analysis. At the receiving end, the corresponding algorithm along with the SK was employed to retrieve the original secret message from the audio signals. Performance evaluation with state-of-the-art network equipment and security tests conducted using the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon method indicated that the proposed steganographic algorithm is secure, effective, and robust.     

Dynamic high-gain scaling: State and output feedback with application to systems with ISS appended dynamics driven by all States

We propose a dynamic high-gain scaling technique and solutions to coupled Lyapunov equations leading to results on state-feedback, output-feedback, and input-to-state stable (ISS) appended dynamics with nonzero gains from all states and input. The observer and controller designs have a dual architecture and utilize a single dynamic scaling. A novel procedure for designing the dynamics of the high-gain parameter is introduced based on choosing a Lyapunov function whose derivative is negative if either the high-gain parameter or its derivative is large enough (compared to functions of the states). The system is allowed to contain uncertain terms dependent on all states and uncertain appended ISS dynamics with nonlinear gains from all system states and input. In contrast, previous results require uncertainties to be bounded by a function of the output and require the appended dynamics to be ISS with respect to the output, i.e., require the gains from other states and the input to be zero. The generated control laws have an algebraically simple structure and the associated Lyapunov functions have a simple quadratic form with a scaling. The design is based on the solution of two pairs of coupled Lyapunov equations for which a constructive procedure is provided. The proposed observer/controller structure provides a globally asymptotically stabilizing output-feedback solution for the benchmark open problem proposed in our earlier work with the provision that a magnitude bound on the unknown parameter be given.     

Dynamic Compensation for Control of a Rotary wing UAV Using Positive Position Feedback

This paper presents a novel compensation method for the coupled fuselage-rotor mode of a Rotary wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (RUAV). The presence of stabilizer bar limits the performance of attitude control of an RUAV. In this paper, a Positive Position Feedback (PPF) is introduced to increase the stability margins and allow higher control bandwidth. The identified model is used to design a PPF controller to mitigate the presence of stabilizer bar. Parameters for the linear RUAV model are obtained by performing linear system identification about a few selected points. This identification process gives complete RUAV dynamics and is suitable for designing a Stability Augmentation System (SAS) of an RUAV. The identified parameters of an RUAV model are verified using experimental flight data and can be used to obtain the nonlinear model of an RUAV. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested using a high-fidelity RUAV simulation model, which is validated through experimental flight data. The closed-loop response of the rotorcraft indicates that the desired attitude performance is achieved while ensuring that the coupled fuselage-rotor mode is effectively compensated without penalizing the phase response.     

Active disturbance rejection control to MIMO nonlinear systems with stochastic uncertainties: approximate decoupling and output-feedback stabilisation

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we apply the active disturbance rejection control, an emerging control technology, to output-feedback stabilisation for a class of uncertain multi-input multi-output nonlinear systems with vast stochastic uncertainties. Two types of extended state observers (ESO) are designed to estimate both unmeasured states and stochastic total disturbance which includes unknown system dynamics, unknown stochastic inverse dynamics, external stochastic disturbance without requiring the statistical characteristics, uncertain nonlinear interactions between subsystems, and uncertainties caused by the deviation of control parameters from their nominal values. The estimations decouple approximately the system after cancelling stochastic total disturbance in the feedback loop. As a result, we are able to design an ESO-based stabilising output-feedback and prove the practical mean square stability for the closed-loop system with constant gain ESO and the asymptotic mean square stability with time-varying gain ESO, respectively. Some numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed output-feedback control scheme.     

A periodic fixed-structure approach to multirate control

We develop an approach to designing reduced-order multirate controllers. A discrete-time model that accounts for the multirate timing sequence of measurements is presented and is shown to have periodically time-varying dynamics. Using discrete-time stability theory, the optimal projection approach to fixed-order (i.e. full- and reduced-order) dynamic compensation is generalized to obtain reduced-order periodic controllers that account for the multirate architecture. It is shown that the optimal reduced-order controller is characterized by means of a periodically time-varying system of equations consisting of coupled Riccati and Lyapunov equations. In addition, the multirate static output-feedback control problem is considered. For both problems, the design equations are presented in a concise, unified manner to facilitate their accessibility for developing numerical algorithms for practical applications     

A robust guidance and control scheme of an autonomous scale helicopter in presence of wind gusts

This article deals with the problem of robust trajectory tracking for a scale model autonomous helicopter. A large class of uncertainties/disturbance is addressed, namely uncertain parameters and uniform time-varying tridimensional wind gusts occurring in the vicinity of the aircraft. Using an unknown input observer technique, it is shown that disturbances/uncertainties effects on the autonomous helicopter can be accurately reconstructed online. The analysis further extends to the design of a control law whose methodology takes the disturbance estimation procedure into account. Regarding passivity feature of the resulting model, a control law was designed using robust backstepping techniques. The approach proposed here significantly improves the performance of the control and the flight security by counteracting wind gusts in any flight phases. The framework proposed is applied to a non-linear six degree-of-freedom helicopter model. Consequently, a non-linear dynamic model of miniature helicopter is proposed, which focuses on the key effects in the dynamics of a miniature helicopter. Lyapunov stability analysis is then performed to keep the balance between robustness, short response time and large stability domain with a given security margin to guarantee obstacle avoidance during the tracking trajectory process. Simulations results are presented at the end of the article.     

Online Replanning of Time-Efficient Flight Paths for Unmanned Rotorcraft

Onboard and online flight path planning for small-scale unmanned rotorcraft requires efficient algorithms in order to meet real-time constraints. In a priori unknown environment, rapid replanning is necessary in order to maintain a safe clearance when new obstacles are detected. The complexity of the planning problem varies vastly with the required flight path qualities and the complexity of the environment. In most scenarios flight paths should be smooth and time-efficient and always feasible to fly. Therefore, the rotorcraft’s flight dynamics must be accounted for. Decoupled planning approaches have been proven to solve this problem very efficiently by dividing the problem into sequentially solvable subproblems. However, this computational efficiency comes at the cost of having to compromise on the flight path quality. In this work, we present a decoupled planning approach that has been integrated with our midiARTIS helicopter in order to perform onboard path planning when flying through a priori unknown environment. The approach involves roadmap-based global path planning and local path refinement with cubic splines. It allows to plan safe, dynamically feasible and time-efficient flight paths with limited onboard processing power. We present simulation results from a set of benchmark scenarios in complex urban terrain as well as results from flight testing of a closed-loop obstacle avoidance maneuver with virtual obstacle mapping. Our results demonstrate that close-to-optimal flight paths can be planned with a decoupled planning approach, if heuristics and simplifications for each planning step are carefully chosen.