A structured -based optimization approach for integrated plant and self-scheduled flight control system design

This paper presents a new procedure for the integrated plant and flight control system design in the presence of parametric uncertainties. The proposed approach is based on a design procedure consisting in casting gain-scheduling and robustness requirements into the framework of structured design. As both controller architecture and gain-scheduling structure are defined a priori, the scheduled gains can be tuned by the newly available MATLAB-based tool systune to minimize constraints related to performance requirements over both operating and uncertain domains. It is shown that this technique allows for optimization and adjustment of plant's physical parameters while satisfying closed-loop performance requirements. The proposed procedure is applied to the F-16 Fighting Falcon flight control system design under mass and center of gravity uncertainties by adjusting the location of an additional accelerometer to optimize the closed-loop performance while minimizing the horizontal tail area. Numerical studies are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.