A Compound Fuzzy Disturbance Observer Based on Sliding Modes and Its Application on Flight Simulator

A compound fuzzy disturbance observer based on sliding modes is developed, and its application on flight simulator is presented. Fuzzy disturbance observer (FDO) is an effective method in nonlinear control. However, traditional FDO is confined to monitor dynamic disturbance, and the frequency bandwidth of the system is restricted. Sliding mode control (SMC) compensates the high-frequency component of disturbance while it is limited by the chattering phenomenon. The proposed method uses the sliding mode technique to deal with the uncompensated dynamic equivalent disturbance. The switching gain of sliding mode control designed according to the error of disturbance estimation is a small value. Therefore, the proposal also helps to decrease the chattering. The validity of the proposal method is confirmed by experiments on flight simulator

Active Disturbance Rejection Control for the Robust Flight of a Passively Tilted Hexarotor

This paper presents a robust control strategy for controlling the flight of a passively (fixed) tilted hexarotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The proposed controller is based on a robust extended-state observer to estimate and reject internal dynamics and external disturbances at run-time. Both stability and convergence of the observer are proved using Lyapunov-based perturbation theory and an ultimate bound approach. Such a controller is implemented within a highly realistic simulation environment that includes physics motors, devising an almost transparent behaviour with respect to the real UAV. The controller is tested for flying under normal conditions and in the presence of different types of disturbances showing successful results. Furthermore, the proposed control system is compared against another robust control approach, presenting a better performance regarding the attenuation of the error signals

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography, supplement 122

This bibliography lists 303 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in April 1980

Vibration suppression using fractional-order disturbance observer based adaptive grey predictive controller

A novel control strategy is proposed for vibration suppression using an integration of a fractional-order disturbance observer (FDOB) and an adaptive grey predictive controller (AGPC). AGPC is utilized to realize outer loop control for better transient performance by predicting system outputs ahead with metabolic GM(1,1) model, and an adaptive step switching module is adopted for the grey predictor in AGPC. FDOB is used to obtain disturbance estimate and generate compensation signal, and as the order of Q-filter is expanded to real-number domain, FDOB has a wider range to select a suitable tradeoff between robustness and vibration suppression. For implementation of the fractional order Q-filter, broken-line approximation method is introduced. The proposed control strategy is simple in control-law derivation, and its effectiveness is validated by numerical simulations

Modeling and control of a modular iron bird

This paper describes the control architecture and the control laws of a new concept of Modular Iron Bird aimed at reproducing flight loads to test mobile aerodynamic control surface actuators for small and medium size aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The iron bird control system must guarantee the actuation of counteracting forces. On one side, a hydraulic actuator simulates the hinge moments acting on the mobile surface due to aerodynamic and inertial effects during flight; on the other side, the actuator to be tested applies an active hinge moment to control the angular position of the same surface. Reference aerodynamic and inertial loads are generated by a flight simulation module to reproduce more realistic conditions arising during operations. The design of the control action is based on a dynamic model of the hydraulic plant used to generate loads. This system is controlled using a Proportional Integral Derivative control algorithm tuned with an optimization algorithm taking into account the closed loop dynamics of the actuator under testing, uncertainties and disturbances in the controlled plant. Numerical simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed architecture and control laws

ADS-33C related handling qualities research performed using the NRC Bell 205 airborne simulator

Over 10 years ago a project was initiated by the U.S. Army AVSCOM to update the military helicopter flying qualities specification MIL-8501-A. While not yet complete, the project reached a major milestone in 1989 with the publication of an Airworthiness Design Standard, ADS-33C. The 8501 update project initially set out to identify critical gaps in the requisite data base and then proceeded to fill them using a variety of directed research studies. The magnitude of the task required that it become an international effort: appropriate research studies were conducted in Germany, the UK and Canada as well as in the USA. Canadian participation was supported by the Department of National Defence (DND) through the Chief of Research and Development. Both ground based and in-flight simulation were used to study the defined areas and the Canadian Bell 205-A1 variable stability helicopter was used extensively as one of the primary research tools available for this effort. This paper reviews the involvement of the Flight Research Laboratory of the National Research Council of Canada in the update project, it describes the various experiments conducted on the Airborne Simulator, it notes significant results obtained and describes ongoing research associated with the project

Technical approaches for measurement of human errors

Human error is a significant contributing factor in a very high proportion of civil transport, general aviation, and rotorcraft accidents. The technical details of a variety of proven approaches for the measurement of human errors in the context of the national airspace system are presented. Unobtrusive measurements suitable for cockpit operations and procedures in part of full mission simulation are emphasized. Procedure, system performance, and human operator centered measurements are discussed as they apply to the manual control, communication, supervisory, and monitoring tasks which are relevant to aviation operations

Aerospace medicine and biology. A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 186

This bibliography lists 159 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System in October 1978

A Chattering Free Discrete-Time Global Sliding Mode Controller for Optoelectronic Tracking System

Aiming at the uncertainties including parameter variations and external disturbances in optoelectronic tracking system, a discrete-time global sliding mode controller (DGSMC) is proposed. By the design of nonlinear switching function, the initial state of control system is set on the switching surface. An adaptive discrete-time reaching law is introduced to suppress the high-frequency chattering at control input, and a linear extrapolation method is employed to estimate the unknown uncertainties and commands. The global reachability for sliding mode and the chattering-free property are proven by means of mathematical derivation. Numerical simulation presents that the proposed DGSMC scheme not only ensures strong robustness against system uncertainties and small tracking error, but also suppresses the high-frequency chattering at control input effectively, compared with the SMC scheme using conventional discrete-time reaching law