Adaptive Flight Control in the Presence of Limits on Magnitude and Rate

Abstract: Input constraints as well as parametric uncertainties must be accounted for in the design of safe control systems. This paper presents an adaptive controller for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) plants with input magnitude and rate saturation in the presence of parametric uncertainties. A filter is introduced in the control path to accommodate the presence of rate limits. An output feedback adaptive controller is designed to stabilize the closed loop system even in the presence of this filter. The overall control architecture includes adaptive laws that are modified to account for the magnitude and rate limits. Analytical guarantees of bounded solutions and satisfactory tracking are provided. Three flight control simulations with nonlinear models of the aircraft dynamics are provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed adaptive controller for open loop stable and unstable systems in the presence of uncertainties in the dynamics as well as input magnitude and rate saturation.