Aircraft Control Allocation Wayne Durham, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA Kenneth A. Bordignon, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA Roger Beck, Dynamic Concepts, Inc., USA An authoritative work on aircraft control allocation by its pioneers Aircraft Control Allocation addresses the problem of allocating supposed redundant flight controls. It provides introductory material on flight dynamics and control to provide the context, and then describes in detail the geometry of the problem. The book includes a large section on solution methods, including 'Banks' method', a previously unpublished procedure. Generalized inverses are also discussed at length. There is an introductory section on linear programming solutions, as well as an extensive and comprehensive appendix dedicated to linear programming formulations and solutions. Discrete-time, or frame-wise allocation, is presented, including rate-limiting, nonlinear data, and preferred solutions. Key features: Written by pioneers in the field of control allocation. Comprehensive explanation and discussion of the major control allocation solution methods. Extensive treatment of linear programming solutions to control allocation. A companion web site contains the code of a MATLAB/Simulink flight simulation with modules that incorporate all of the major solution methods. Includes examples based on actual aircraft. The book is a vital reference for researchers and practitioners working in aircraft control, as well as graduate students in aerospace engineering.

Aircraft Control Allocation An authoritative work on aircraft control allocation by its pioneers Aircraft Control Allocation addresses the problem of allocating redundant flight controls. It provides introductory material on flight dynamics and control to provide the context, and then describes in detail the geometry of the problem. The book includes a large section on solution methods, including ‘Banks’ method’, a previously unpublished procedure. Generalized inverses are also discussed at length. There is an introductory section on linear programming solutions, as well as an extensive and comprehensive appendix on linear programming formulations and solutions. Discrete-time or ‘frame-wise’ allocation is described, including rate-limiting, nonlinear data, and preferred solutions. Key features: Written by pioneers in the field of control allocation Comprehensive explanation and discussion of the major control-allocation solution methods Extensive treatment of linear programming solutions to control allocation A companion web site contains the code of a MATLAB/Simulink light simulation with modules that incorporate all of the major solution methods Includes examples based on actual aircraft The book is a vital reference for researchers and practitioners working in aircraft control, as well as graduate students in aerospace engineering.

Aircraft Control Allocation An authoritative work on aircraft control allocation by its pioneers Aircraft Control Allocation addresses the problem of allocating redundant flight controls. It provides introductory material on flight dynamics and control to provide the context, and then describes in detail the geometry of the problem. The book includes a large section on solution methods, including ‘Banks’ method’, a previously unpublished procedure. Generalized inverses are also discussed at length. There is an introductory section on linear programming solutions, as well as an extensive and comprehensive appendix on linear programming formulations and solutions. Discrete-time or ‘frame-wise’ allocation is described, including rate-limiting, nonlinear data, and preferred solutions. Key features: Written by pioneers in the field of control allocation Comprehensive explanation and discussion of the major control-allocation solution methods Extensive treatment of linear programming solutions to control allocation A companion web site contains the code of a MATLAB/Simulink light simulation with modules that incorporate all of the major solution methods Includes examples based on actual aircraft The book is a vital reference for researchers and practitioners working in aircraft control, as well as graduate students in aerospace engineering.

Aircraft Flight Dynamics and Control addresses airplane flight dynamics and control in a largely classical manner, but with references to modern treatment throughout. Classical feedback control methods are illustrated with relevant examples, and current trends in control are presented by introductions to dynamic inversion and control allocation. This book covers the physical and mathematical fundamentals of aircraft flight dynamics as well as more advanced theory enabling a better insight into nonlinear dynamics. This leads to a useful introduction to automatic flight control and stability augmentation systems with discussion of the theory behind their design, and the limitations of the systems. The author provides a rigorous development of theory and derivations and illustrates the equations of motion in both scalar and matrix notation. Key features: Classical development and modern treatment of flight dynamics and control Detailed and rigorous exposition and examples, with illustrations Presentation of important trends in modern flight control systems Accessible introduction to control allocation based on the author's seminal work in the field Development of sensitivity analysis to determine the influential states in an airplane's response modes End of chapter problems with solutions available on an accompanying website Written by an author with experience as an engineering test pilot as well as a university professor, Aircraft Flight Dynamics and Control provides the reader with a systematic development of the insights and tools necessary for further work in related fields of flight dynamics and control. It is an ideal course textbook and is also a valuable reference for many of the necessary basic formulations of the math and science underlying flight dynamics and control.

This paper presents a flight controller for a tail-less aircraft with a large suite of conventional and unconventional control effectors. The controller structure is modular to take advantages of individual technologies from the areas of plant parameter estimation, control allocation, and robust feedback control. Linear models generated off-line provide plant parameter estimates for control. Dynamic inversion control provides direct satisfaction of flying qualities requirements in the presence of uncertainties. The focus of this paper, however, is control allocation. Control allocation is posed as constrained parameter optimization to minimize an objective that is a function of the control surface deflections. The control law is decomposed into a sequence of prioritized partitions, and additional optimization variables scale the control partitions to provide optimal command limiting which prevent actuator saturation. Analysis shows that appropriate prioritization of dynamic inversion control laws provides graceful command and loop response degradation for unachievable commands. Preliminary simulation results show that command variable response remains decoupled for unachievable commands while other command limiting methods may result in unacceptable coupled response.