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Aircraft Pitch Control with Fixed Order LQ Compensators

URC97051 · NASA (NTRS) · 1997

Public domain · NASA (NTRS)Technical Reports

Overview

This paper considers a given set of fixed order compensators for aircraft pitch control problem. By augmenting compensator variables to the original state equations of the aircraft, a new dynamic model is considered to seek a LQ controller. While the fixed order compensators can achieve a set of…

Publisher
NASA (NTRS)
Document
URC97051
Year
1997
Pages
4

Key points

  • The paper discusses fixed order compensators for aircraft pitch control, enhancing ride quality through dynamic models.
  • LQ (Linear Quadratic) control formulation is used to achieve robust performance in the presence of uncertainties.
  • The study presents a new dynamic model by augmenting compensator variables to the original state equations of the aircraft.
  • Simulation results indicate that dynamic compensators can reduce peak accelerations by about 50%.
  • The design parameters significantly influence the performance index and closed loop poles in the control law.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main focus of the document?

The document focuses on aircraft pitch control using fixed order LQ compensators to improve ride quality.

How do fixed order compensators affect aircraft control?

Fixed order compensators help achieve desired pole placement and enhance the robustness of the control system.

What are the benefits of using LQ formulation in aircraft control?

LQ formulation provides inherent robustness properties, allowing the system to tolerate unstructured uncertainties.

What were the results of the simulations conducted in the study?

The simulations showed that using dynamic compensators significantly improved the time response and reduced peak accelerations.

What parameters influence the performance index in the control law?

The performance index is influenced by the weighting matrices Q and R, as well as other design parameters like T1, T2, and T3.

Document

URC97051

AIRCRAFT PITCH CONTROL WITH FIXED ORDER LQ COMPENSATORS A. Homaifar$ James Green* CR. Ashokkumar; NASA Center of Research Excellence The North Carolina A & T State University Greensboro, NC 27411 A B S T R A C T This paper considers a given set of fixed order compensators for aircraft pitch control problem. By augment- ing compensator variables to the original state equations of the aircraft, a new dynamic model is considered to seek a LQ controller. While the fixed order compensators can achieve a set of desired poles in a specified region, LQ formulation provides the inherent robustness properties. The time response for ride quality is significantly improved with a set of dynamic compensators.

1. Introduction: While designing a feedback control, ride and handling qualities are major performance objectives in aircraft control problems. Such objectives are normally achieved by closed closed loop pole assignment [I]. Preserving these closed loop poles ( within the desired regions ) in the presence of perturbations is another requirement [2]. LQ problems have inherent stability margins to tolerate unstructured uncertainties. LQ design techniques with regional pole constraints have been studied extensively in the literature see [3], and its references ].

Similar approach, but with dynamic compensators, hwe been investigated for automotive applications [4].

The compensators given in [5] for aircraft control problem are considered in LQ problem setting. The objective of this approach is to improve aircraft ride quality defined in [1].

II. Prol}lem Formulation: An aircraft model in pitch plane [ with normal acceleration ( 712 ), pitch rate ( q ) and elevator deflection ( 6e ) as state variables and command input ( tiC ) as control variable], is given by [2;: (1)

‘=[’~ ‘: ~’Hj’j+hJ

A z(t) b It is well known that the control law

u(t) = –R–lb’ l%(t) + r(t) (2)

minimizes the performance index

.1 = ‘{zrQz + ?;R?J}(it (3)

J

o and satisfies the algebraic riccati equation A’P– PbR-lb’P+PA+Q=O (4) Selection of weighting matrices to achieve a controller in equation 2 for exact pole assignment has been extensively investigated in reference [3]. Suppose, we choose a set of dynamic compensators given in [s] for the control law structure ~2] ( see Figure-1 ), then the state equations for the compensators are: * [Undergraduate Student, Dept. of Electrical Engineering.

t post Doctoral R=earcl, .4ss0 ciate.

I Associate prof~sor, Dept of Electrical Engineering.

t- Red Figure 2: Regional Constraints for Aircraft II. Simulation Results: For F-4 aircraft model at Mach= 1..5, Altitude =35,000ft, the system dynamic matrices are given by: 1’78.9 –0.5162 26.96 A = –0.6896 –1.225 –30.38 0 –14 o [ –17.5.6 b = –14

[1

The matrices ~ and b for the state vector ~(t) = [z(t), ZI(t), z2(t)]’ arc 0 0 —T1 o 0 — TS ~=[;:” 1 –175.6 o $= –14 where, o Ii A1=[l OO] AZ = [ –0.6896 (–1,225 + r.. ) –30.38 ] At this flight condition, the short period damping ( <.P ) and frequency ( W,P ) requirements are: 0.35< <.p <1.3 (12) and (13) 3.29< w~p <11.8 In complex plane, these constraints impose regional pole constraints shown in Figure 2.

Table- 1 Design Variables Wsv <s, 0.4789 Q. R 4.50’78 0.5316 Q, R 6.44.58 Desired [3.29, 11.8] [0.35, 1.3] FIIs) n: - F L+

(f

Z2

F21S} Figure 1: Control Law Structure [Ref 2] with Filters F’1 (s) = ~ and F’z(s) = ~ = —Tlzl + 7-12 (5) . .

—T3Z2 ~ T2~ (6) %2-Y= From the aircraft dynamical equations 1, substituting for ~, we have ~~ = azlrzz + (azz + r~)q + aztfi, — T3Z2 (7) For the new state vector z(t),

z(t) = [z(t), Zl(t), z2(f)]’

the state space equations become, i(t) = m(t) + k(t) (8) where, (211 alz 013 0 0 LZ21 (L22 Q3 o 0 0 0 –14 o 0 bl o 6=14 o

II

It can be verified that for these dynamic compensators, the system in equation 8 is completely controllable.

Thus the control law m(t) = –R–16’FT(t) + ?-(t) (9) minimizes the performance index 3= ‘{Z’QZ + 12’Rti}dt (10) / .0 and satisfies the algebraic riccati equation ——— (11) ii’~-PbR-li~+~~+~=O With the above formulations, we shall now present the closed loop eigenvalues for various values of the design parameters. The design parameters for J are obviously the weighting matrices Q and R. However, note that the performance index ~ is significantly influenced by the other design parameters T1, T2, and r3, in addition to Q and ~. The next, section presents the simulation results.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,,.,’..

/ with Compensators = 2.5 T1 TQ = 75 T3 = 4.0 -1 -., .,.

-2 + without compensators -3 -4

o 0.5 1

1.5 2 2.5 3 Figure 3: Time response pelts due to step input 4 4 The weighting matrices Q = 1 and R. = 10 as well as the weighting matrices ~ = 1 and ~ = 10 provide 3 3 the acceptable closed loop poles [ see Table 1 ].

I-Iowever, what needs to be observed is the time response plots ( due to step input ) shown in Figure 3. We observe that the normal acceleration at the sensor location is nonminimal. Moreover, the peak accelerations are significantly reduced with dynamic compensators ( about 50% ).

Acknowledgements: This work is partially supported by grant from the NASA Center of Research of Excellence at NC A&T’ State University under grant # NAGW-2924. The authors wish to thank the NASA-CORE administration.

References: 1. “Flying Qualities of Piloted Airplanes,” MIL-F-8785B(ASG), Aug 7, 1969 2. S.N. Franklin and J. Ackerman, “Robust Flight Control:A Design Example,” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, v 4, n 6, 1981, pp 597.

Y. Ochi and K. Kanai, “Pole Placement in Optimal Regulator by Continuous Pole-S hefting,” Journal 3.

of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, v 18, n 6, 1995, pp 1253-1258 4. H. Peng and M. Tomizuka, “Preview Control for Vehicle Lateral Guidance in Highway Automation: Journal of Dynamic systems, Measurement and Control, v 115, 1993, pp 679-686 5. CR. Ashokkumar, ‘LRobust Optimal Compensators with Tight Control Philosophy: Rep. GCD/CRA/2, NASA Center of Research Excellence, North Carolina A & T State U-niversity, Greensboro, NC

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Source: ntrs.nasa.gov. Public-domain U.S. Government work (17 USC §105) — freely reproducible.

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Document details

Doc number
URC97051
Publisher
NASA (NTRS)
Year
1997
Pages
4
File size
76 KB