Switched control of a vertical/short take-off land aircraft: An application of linear quadratic bumpless transfer

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a switching scheme for integrated flight and propulsion control of a vertical/short take-off land (V/STOL) aircraft throughout the hover and transition regions of its flight envelope. The approach adopted makes use of a recently introduced bumpless transfer technique and presents a methodology for switching between multiple controllers while limiting on-line computational overheads. The success of the switching scheme in maintaining desirable flying qualities as the aircraft accelerates from hover to wing-borne flight is demonstrated in non-linear simulation. Simulation results for the switched system clearly show the effectiveness of the bumpless transfer scheme in preserving closed-loop performance during switching.