Longitudinal Flight-Path Control Using Online Function Approximation

Stable online approximation-based control algorithms are derived for aircraft longitudinal dynamics (γ, a, Q, and V) on an unmanned combat aircraft. The objectives of the control approach are to stabilize the aircraft dynamics and to achieve accurate command tracking in the presence of significant nonlinear model error. This error could be due to mismatch between the true aircraft dynamics and the model available at the control design stage, or could be the result of events that occur during the vehicle flight, that is, battle damage. Lyapunov-type stability analysis and simulation demonstrations of the achieved performance are included.