Historical Overview of Research in Reconfigurable Flight Control

Abstract This article presents a historical overview of research in reconfigurable flight control. For the purpose of this article, the term ‘reconfigurable flight control’ is used to refer to software algorithms designed specifically to compensate for failures or damage of flight control effectors or lifting surfaces, using the remaining effectors to generate compensating forces and moments. This article will discuss initial research and flight testing of approaches based on explicit fault detection, isolation, and estimation, as well as later approaches based on continuously adaptive and intelligent control algorithms. In addition, approaches for trajectory reshaping of an impaired aircraft with reconfigurable inner loop control laws will be briefly discussed. Finally, there will be some discussion on current implementations of reconfigurable control to improve safety on production and flight test aircraft and remaining challenges to enable broader use of the technology, such as the difficulties of flight certification of these types of approaches.

[1]  Peggy S. Williams-Hayes.  Selected Flight Test Results for Online Learning Neural Network-Based Flight Control System , 2004 .

[2]  David G. Ward,et al.  Indirect adaptive flight control of a tailless fighter aircraft , 1999 .

[3]  Gunter Stein,et al.  ADAPTIVE FLIGHT CONTROL: A PRAGMATIC VIEW , 1980 .

[4]  R. M. Hueschen,et al.  Restructurable controls for aircraft , 1983 .

[5]  David B. Doman,et al.  Reconfigurable Inner Loop Control Of A Space Maneuvering Vehicle , 2003 .

[6]  Kumpati S. Narendra,et al.  Identification and control of dynamical systems using neural networks , 1990, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks.

[7]  Jie Chen,et al.  An LMI approach to fault-tolerant control of uncertain systems , 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC) held jointly with IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA) Intell.

[8]  J. Urnes,et al.  A damage adaptive flight control system using neural network technology , 2001, Proceedings of the 2001 American Control Conference. (Cat. No.01CH37148).

[9]  John J. Burken,et al.  RECONFIGURABLE CONTROL DESIGN FOR THE FULL X-33 FLIGHT ENVELOPE , 2001 .

[10]  Kevin A. Wise,et al.  Stability Analysis Of Reconfigurable and Gain Scheduled Flight Control Systems Using LMIs , 1998 .

[11]  Petros A. Ioannou,et al.  Accommodation of failures in the F-16 aircraft using adaptive control , 1991, IEEE Control Systems.

[12]  M. Bodson.  An adaptive algorithm with information-dependent data forgetting , 1995, Proceedings of 1995 American Control Conference - ACC'95.

[13]  H. Gross,et al.  Control reconfigurable combat aircraft flight control system development , 1986 .

[14]  David G. Ward,et al.  IMPLEMENTATION AND FLIGHT TEST ASSESSMENT OF AN ADAPTIVE, RECONFIGURABLE FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM , 1997 .

[15]  Marc L. Steinberg,et al.  Nonlinear adaptive flight control with genetic algorithm design optimization , 1999 .

[16]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Application of an Adaptive Autopilot Design to a Family of Guided Munitions , 2000 .

[17]  James F. Stewart,et al.  Flight-testing of the self-repairing flight control system using the F-15 highly integrated digital electronic control flight research facility , 1990 .

[18]  David G. Ward,et al.  A Retrofit Architecture for Model-Based Adaptive Flight Control , 2004 .

[19]  Duane T. McRuer,et al.  Retrospective essay on nonlinearities in aircraft flight control , 1991 .

[20]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Multilayer neural network and adaptive nonlinear control of agile anti-air missiles , 1997 .

[21]  John D. Schierman,et al.  Flight Test Results of an Adaptive Guidance System for Reusable Launch Vehicles , 2004 .

[22]  Eric Feron,et al.  Trajectory reconfiguration for an unmanned aircraft , 2002 .

[23]  Robert F. Stengel,et al.  Restructurable control using proportional-integral implicit model following , 1990 .

[24]  Roberto Celi,et al.  Reconfigurable Flight Control Systems for a Tandem Rotor Helicopter , 1996 .

[25]  Stephen Osder,et al.  Practical View of Redundancy Management Application and Theory , 1999 .

[26]  A.K. Caglayan,et al.  Detection, Identification and Estimation of Surface Damage/Actuator Failure for High Performance Aircraft , 1988, 1988 American Control Conference.

[27]  S. R. Hall,et al.  Aircraft control surface failure detection and isolation using the OSGLR test , 1986 .

[28]  Yuri B. Shtessel,et al.  Tailless aircraft flight control using multiple time scale reconfigurable sliding modes , 2002, IEEE Trans. Control. Syst. Technol..

[29]  Peter S. Maybeck.  Application of Multiple Model Adaptive Algorithms to Reconfigurable Flight Control , 1992 .

[30]  Stan Pruett,et al.  URV Flight Test of an ADA Implemented Self-Repairing Flight Control System , 1992 .

[31]  Chien Huang,et al.  Failure-accommodating neural network flight control , 1992 .

[32]  Charles C. Jorgensen,et al.  Direct Adaptive Aircraft Control Using Dynamic Cell Structure Neural Networks , 1997 .

[33]  Kevin A. Wise,et al.  Flight Testing of Reconfigurable Control Law on the X-36 Tailless Aircraft , 2001 .

[34]  John J. Burken,et al.  Development and flight test of an augmented thrust-only flight control system on an MD-11 transport airplane , 1996 .

[35]  W. D. Morse,et al.  Model following reconfigurable flight control system for the AFTI/F-16 , 1990 .

[36]  Marc L. Steinberg,et al.  Comparison of Intelligent, Adaptive, and Nonlinear Flight Control Laws , 1999 .

[37]  Marc L. Steinberg,et al.  HIGH-FIDELITY SIMULATION TESTING OF CONTROL ALLOCATION METHODS , 2002 .

[38]  Fikret Caliskan,et al.  Integrated sensor/actuator FDI and reconfigurable control for fault-tolerant flight control system design , 2001, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[39]  Marc Bodson,et al.  COMMAND LIMITING IN RECONFIGURABLE FLIGHT CONTROL , 1998 .

[40]  J. J. Buchholz,et al.  Genetic Algorithms for Reconfiguration , 1996 .

[41]  R. J. Patton,et al.  Soft Computing Approaches to Fault Diagnosis for Dynamic Systems: A Survey , 2000 .

[42]  E. A. Woods,et al.  Fault detection, supervision and safety for technical processes , 1993 .

[43]  David G. Ward,et al.  Intelligent Control of Unmanned Air Vehicles: Program Summary and Representative Results , 2003 .

[44]  M. L. Steinberg,et al.  High-fidelity simulation testing of intelligent and adaptive aircraft control laws , 2002, Proceedings of the 2002 American Control Conference (IEEE Cat. No.CH37301).

[45]  W. Murray,et al.  An algorithm for RLS identification parameters that vary quickly with time , 1993, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control..

[46]  Daniel Gleason,et al.  Fault detection and isolation for reconfigurable flight control systems , 1988 .

[47]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Nonlinear flight control using neural networks , 1994 .

[48]  Jerry M. Wohletz.  Retrofit systems for reconfiguration in civil aviation , 1999 .

[49]  Eric N. Johnson,et al.  FEEDBACK LINEARIZATION WITH NEURAL NETWORK AUGMENTATION APPLIED TO X-33 ATTITUDE CONTROL , 2000 .

[50]  Vander Velde.  Control system reconfiguration , 1984 .

[51]  M. Pachter,et al.  On‐line system identification for aircraft with distributed control effectors , 1999 .

[52]  Marc L. Steinberg,et al.  Effects of Control Allocation Algorithms on a Nonlinear Adaptive Design , 1999 .

[53]  Peter S. Maybeck,et al.  Reconfigurable flight control via multiple model adaptive control methods , 1991 .

[54]  Tahm Sadeghi.  Redundant command generator tracker control technique for self-repairing flight control systems , 1984, The 23rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[55]  R. Smyth,et al.  Survey of adaptive control applications to aerospace vehicles , 1968 .

[56]  Sreeram V. Balakrishnan,et al.  A hierarchical fuzzy logic controller with a velocity modifier for restructurable flight control systems , 1995 .

[57]  Roger L. Barron,et al.  Applications of polynomial neural networks to FDIE and reconfigurable flight control , 1990, IEEE Conference on Aerospace and Electronics.

[58]  Ron J. Patton,et al.  Fault-Tolerant Control: The 1997 Situation , 1997 .

[59]  Marcello R. Napolitano,et al.  New technique for aircraft flight control reconfiguration , 1991 .

[60]  J. Buffington,et al.  Tailless aircraft flight control using multiple time scale re-configurable sliding modes , 1999 .

[61]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Development of a Reconfigurable Flight Control Law for the X-36 Tailless Fighter Aircraft , 2000 .

[62]  S. N. Balakrishnan,et al.  Adaptive critic based neural networks for aircraft control , 1995 .

[63]  Joseph Totah.  Simulation evaluation of a neural-based flight controller , 1996 .

[64]  James Urnes,et al.  Flight demonstration of the self-repairing flight control system in a NASA F-15 aircraft , 1991 .

[65]  Robert E. Jones,et al.  Advanced Guidance and Control Methods for Reusable Launch Vehicles: Test Results , 2002 .

[66]  Robert F. Stengel.  Intelligent failure-tolerant control , 1991 .

[67]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Neural networks for feedback linearization in aircraft control , 1992 .

[68]  Douglas Looze,et al.  An approach to restructurable control system design , 1984, The 23rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[69]  P. R. Chandler,et al.  Self-repairing flight control system program overview , 1988, Proceedings of the IEEE 1988 National Aerospace and Electronics Conference.

[70]  A. K. Caglayan,et al.  An Expert System Approach to Global Fault Detection and Isolation Design , 1990 .

[71]  Richard Vernon Beard,et al.  Failure accomodation in linear systems through self-reorganization. , 1971 .

[72]  Meir Pachter,et al.  System identification for adaptive and reconfigurable control , 1995 .

[73]  D. G. Ward,et al.  Real-time parameter identification for self-designing flight control , 1994, Proceedings of National Aerospace and Electronics Conference (NAECON'94).

[74]  R. M. Hueschen,et al.  Investigation of control law reconfigurations to accommodate a control element failure on a commercial airplane , 1984 .

[75]  David W. Potts.  Direct Digital Design Method for Reconfigurable Multivariable Control Laws for the A-7D Digitac II Aircraft , 1980 .

[76]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Adaptive Model Inversion Flight Control For Tiltrotor Aircraft , 1998 .

[77]  Kevin A. Wise,et al.  DIRECT ADAPTIVE RECONFIGURABLE FLIGHT CONTROL FOR A TAILLESS ADVANCED FIGHTER AIRCRAFT , 1999 .

[78]  James E. Tomayko,et al.  Computers take flight : a history of NASA's pioneering digital fly-by-wire project , 2000 .

[79]  Timothy L. Johnson,et al.  Validation and Verification of Intelligent and Adaptive Control Systems (VVIACS) , 2004 .

[80]  M. Steinberg.  An initial assessment of neural network and fuzzy logic technology for flight control systems , 1994, Proceedings of 1994 American Control Conference - ACC '94.