Parameter Reduction in Digital Adaptive Flight Control System for Spaceplanes

A digital adaptive flight control system is presented for a Japanese automatic landing flight experiment vehicle (ALFLEX). In previous adaptive control systems based on a linear-parameter-varying (LPV) form, the output behavior was excellent, while the behavior of the adjusted parameters was unsatisfactory. In the present study, to obtain a more appropriate parameter adjustment law, the relationship between the coefficient matrices in a continuous-time state equation and the coefficients of a pulse transfer function in a discrete system for conventional aircraft is investigated. As a result, it is revealed that the coefficients of the numerator can be treated as a linear function of dynamic pressure (linear-parameter-varying: LPV), while the coefficients of the denominator can be treated as constant (linear-time-invariant: LTI). From the above analysis, an improved parameter adjustment law is derived by reducing the number of the adjustment parameters. Simulation results also revealed both good output tracking and good parameter adjustment compared with the previous results.