ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF AIRCRAFT WITH ACTUATOR FAILURE

Abstract

Actuator failures in dynamic systems result in worse performance as they are uncertain in failure time and pattern. For example, many aircraft accidents can occur due to failures in the operation of actuators, like aileron, elevator, and rudder. A Direct adaptive model reference controller (D-MRAC) using Lyapunov theory is designed for an aircraft flight control system (FCS) to guarantee good performance despite the actuator‟s performance degradation or failures. The Direct MRAC control architecture is applied to the Boeing 747 aircraft in longitudinal maneuver. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate suggested control method performance for aircraft due to actuator lock in place, loss of actuator effectiveness and actuator hard over and hard under. The simulations are also carried out with Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) controller and it is seen that direct model reference adaptive controller (D-MRAC) successfully overcomes the actuator fault as compared to the non-adaptive, optimal LQR controller