Minimum Power Control Allocation for Incremental Control of Over-Actuated Transition Aircraft

Abstract

Existing control allocation approaches usually minimize an [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] norm of the actuator commands that is loosely related to the thrust produced or the aerodynamic drag. This paper proposes a novel incremental control allocation method that directly minimizes the total power required for an over-actuated, propeller-driven transition aircraft. The minimum power cost function is derived in a convex form and leads to a closed-form algebraic solution for an additional command increment in the null space of the local control effectiveness matrix. The complete control allocation procedure consists of a two-step approach that is direction-preserving in the presence of actuator saturations and nonlinear due to the incremental formulation. The proposed control allocation is particularly advantageous in the case of a transition aircraft, where the tradeoff between using aerodynamic lift and vertical thrust can be solved naturally by including incremental attitude commands as virtual inputs in the minimum power control allocation. The resulting control allocation scheme allows to both maximize control authority and find minimum power trim solutions. Flight tests are performed on an over-actuated transition aircraft, showcasing the minimum power trim and control allocation without the use of flight mode switching or blending functions throughout all flight regimes.