Formation Flight Control System for In-Flight Sweet Spot Estimation

A formation flight control system has been designed that addresses the unique environment encountered by aircraft flying in formation and in the upwash of the leading aircraft. In order to test the control system a simulation environment has been created that adequately represents the aerodynamic coupling effects between aircraft flying in formation and implements an INDI-based formation flight control system. Since the exact position of the sweet spot cannot be known the research presented in this paper uses an advanced extremum seeking algorithm that utilizes an EKF to estimate the gradients. Simulations have shown the algorithm to be robust to errors induced by turbulence and having the ability to consistently find the sweet spo