Dynamic gain-scheduled control of the ICE 101-TV

This paper shows the theoretical development and application of dynamic gain scheduled control - a novel method for the control of nonlinear systems -to an aircraft model. The idea behind this method is to schedule the control law gains with a fast varying state variable rather than with a slow varying state or an input parameter. This is advantageous as it is then possible to schedule the gains with a state variable that is dominant in the mode that we are most interested in controlling. The use of this type of gain scheduling is shown to improve the transient response of the aircraft model when stepping between trim conditions and to overcome some of the problems associated with conventional gain scheduled controllers (such as control surface position limit saturation). 'Hidden coupling terms' that introduce unwanted dynamics when scheduling gains with a fast state (rather than the input design parameter) are eliminated directly by applying a transformation to the classical parameter-scheduled gain distributions which are calculated using eigenstructure assignment. A second order longitudinal model and a 5th order longitudinal/lateral model of the ICE-101-TV tailless delta-wing aircraft configuration are used to demonstrate the design process.