Control allocation in overactuated aircraft under position and rate limiting

Existing approaches to control allocation in overactuated aircraft under control input saturation are conservative. This is due to the fact that the solution to the corresponding constrained optimization problem may not be attainable with a chosen control input weighting matrix. On the other hand, there may exist a weighting matrix for which a solution exists under control input constraints. In this paper we propose two control allocation algorithms (CAAs) that can be used either online or off-line, and that, under an assumption that at least one solution to the tracking control design exists, finds that solution. The properties of the proposed CAAs are illustrated through simulations of the F/A-18C/D aircraft.