A Quadratic Programming Approach to Flight Envelope Protection Using Control Barrier Functions

Abstract: Ensuring the safe operation of aerospace systems within their prescribed flight envelope is a fundamental requirement for modern flight control systems. Flight envelope protection prevents violations of aerodynamic, structural, and performance constraints, mitigating risks such as stall, excessive loads, and loss of control. Conventional FEP approaches, such as reference clipping via saturation functions and model-based command filtering, impose constraints at the reference input level but often fail to account for closed-loop system dynamics, potentially leading to constraint violations during transients. This paper introduces a new approach to the flight envelope protection problem by employing a quadratic programming-based safety filter using control barrier functions to dynamically enforce flight envelope constraints while preserving control performance. Unlike traditional reference filtering methods, the control barrier function-based safety filter actively ensures strict forward invariance of the safe flight envelope set, integrating seamlessly with existing control architectures. The proposed framework is implemented in a nonlinear missile flight control system and evaluated in a simulated environment. The results demonstrate its ability to prevent constraint violations while minimizing conservatism, offering a robust alternative to existing flight envelope protection methodologies.