Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 94-95)

Adaptive control designs using neural networks (NNs) based on dynamic inversion are investigated for aerospace vehicles which are operated at highly nonlinear dynamic regimes. NNs play a key role as the principal element of adaptation to approximately cancel the effect of inversion error, which subsequently improves robustness to parametric uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics in nonlinear regimes. An adaptive control scheme previously named composite model reference adaptive control is further developed so that it can be applied to multi-input multi-output output feedback dynamic inversion. It can have adaptive elements in both the dynamic compensator (linear controller) part and/or in the conventional adaptive controller part, also utilizing state estimation information for NN adaptation. This methodology has more flexibility and thus hopefully greater potential than conventional adaptive designs for adaptive flight control in highly nonlinear flight regimes. The stability of the control system is proved through Lyapunov theorems, and validated with simulations. The control designs in this thesis also include the use of pseudo-control hedging techniques which are introduced to prevent the NNs from attempting to adapt to various actuation nonlinearities such as actuator position and rate saturations. Control allocation is introduced for the case of redundant control effectors including thrust vectoring nozzles. A thorough comparison study of conventional and NN-based adaptive designs for a system under a limit cycle, wing-rock, is included in this research, and the NN-based adaptive control designs demonstrate their performances for two highly maneuverable aerial vehicles, NASA F-15 ACTIVE and FQM-117B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), operated under various nonlinearities and uncertainties.

Ce travail de thèse est consacré à l'extension de l'Inversion Dynamique non-linéaire (NDI-Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion) pour un ensemble plus grand de systèmes non-linéaires, tout en garantissant des conditions de stabilité suffisantes. La NDI a été étudiée dans le cas de diverses applications, y compris en aéronautique et en aérospatiale. Elle permet de calculer des lois de contrôle capables de linéariser et de découpler un modèle non-linéaire à tout point de fonctionnement de son enveloppe d'état. Cependant cette méthode est intrinsèquement non-robuste aux erreurs de modélisation et aux saturations en entrée. En outre, dans un contexte non-linéaire, l'obtention d'une garantie quantifiable du domaine de stabilité atteint reste à l'heure actuelle complexe. Contrairement aux approches classiques de la NDI, notre méthodologie peut être considérée comme un cadre de compensation non-linéaire généralisé qui permet d'intégrer les incertitudes et les saturations en entrée dans le processus de conception. En utilisant des stratégies de contrôle antiwindup, la loi de pilotage peut être calculée grâce à un simple processus en deux phases. Dans ce cadre de travail généralisé des transformations linéaires fractionnaires (LFT - Linear Fractional Transformations) de la boucle fermée non-linéaire peuvent être facilement déduites pour l'analyse de la stabilité robuste en utilisant des outils standards pour de systèmes linéaires. La méthode proposée est testée pour le pilotage d'un véhicule de rentrée atmosphérique de type aile delta lors de ses phases hypersonique, transsonique et subsonique. Pour cette thèse, un simulateur du vol incluant divers facteurs externes ainsi que des erreurs de modélisation a été développé dans Simulink. / This thesis work is devoted to extending Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) for a large scale of nonlinear systems while guaranteeing sufficient stability conditions. NDI has been studied in a wide range of applications, including aeronautics and aerospace. It allows to compute nonlinear control laws able to decouple and linearize a model at any operating point of its state envelope. However, this method is inherently non-robust to modelling errors and input saturations. Moreover, obtaining a quantifiable guarantee of the attained stability domain in a nonlinear control context is not a very straightforward task. Unlike standard NDI approaches, our methodology can be viewed as a generalized nonlinear compensation framework which allows to incorporate uncertainties and input saturations in the design process. Paralleling anti-windup strategies, the controller can be computed through a single multichannel optimization problem or through a simple two-step process. Within this framework, linear fractional transformations of the nonlinear closed-loop can be easily derived for robust stability analysis using standard tools for linear systems. The proposed method is tested for the flight control of a delta wing type reentry vehicle at hypersonic, transonic and subsonic phases of the atmospheric reentry. For this thesis work, a Flight Mechanics simulator including diverse external factors and modelling errors was developed in Simulink.