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Application of a six degrees of freedom adaptive controller to a general aviation aircraft

In an effort to increase general aviation safety, a simplified model reference adaptive control (MRAC),
adapting to modeling error with only a bias neuron, is applied to a desktop simulation of the Hawker Beechcraft
Corporation (HBC) CJ-144 fly-by-wire aircraft in six degrees of freedom. MRAC has been experimentally applied
to military and commercial aircraft by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of
Defense. Previous research at Wichita State University has demonstrated promising results for MRAC’s application
to general aviation in three degrees of freedom, both in its ability to achieve desired handling qualities and adapt to
unexpected changes in aircraft dynamics.
MRAC is used to control the aircraft in the nominal case and adapts to maintain control with changes in
flight condition or unexpected A matrix and B matrix failures. The HBC CJ-144 aircraft is configured for decoupled
flight control where the pilot commands the airspeed, flight path angle, bank angle, and side force. The controller
architecture consists of an inverse controller, single bias neuron adaptive element, model follower and linear
controller. A six degrees of freedom dynamic inverse controller is derived to calculate the necessary thrust and
control surface deflections in the nominal flight case. An artificial neural network is trained online to correct for
uncertainties in the inverse and to adapt to changes in either the flight condition or the aircraft itself. The aircraft
response is shaped by a model follower and linear controller. An artificial time delay metric is used to tune the
controller gains for the desired performance.
The controller and aircraft are simulated in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Time response results are
presented for maneuvers in each axis as well as aircraft response to unexpected failures. In simulation, the desired
aircraft response was achieved. Additionally, the controller was able to maintain stability and complete maneuvers
following A and B matrix failures. This controller is designed to be flight tested on the HBC CJ-144 fly-by-wire
testbed. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:WICHITA/oai:soar.wichita.edu:10057/3961
Date05 1900
CreatorsLemon, Kimberly Ann
ContributorsSteck, James E.
PublisherWichita State University
Source SetsWichita State University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatxvi, 95 p.
Rights© Copyright 2011 by Kimberly Ann Lemon. All rights reserved

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