Robust Aeroservoelastic Control Utilizing Physics-Based Aerodynamic Sensing

New aircraft designs depend on an integrated active approach to flight control, flutter suppression and structural mode attenuation to meet desired handling quality performance and gust load alleviation. Tao Systems will team with Professor Gary Balas at the University of Minnesota to (1) develop a robust controller that demonstrates improved aerostructural performance over the state-of-the-art by utilizing a novel aerodynamic load sensor, and (2) provide a robust linear parameter varying controller that (a) requires no ad hoc methods of gain-scheduling, (b) provides robustness guarantees that more traditional methods do not offer, and (c) allows for explicit rate bounds enabling less conservative, higher performing controller designs. The benefits include improvement of aerodynamic and structural efficiency using robust aeroservoelastic control methods over a range of flight speeds, in the presence of significant turbulence.

For national security, the ability to cruise efficiently at a range of altitude, enabled by a substantial increase in cruise lift-to-drag (L/D) ratios over today's high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, is vital, providing sustained presence and long range. Robust control utilizing aerodynamic load/moment sensors would enable the efficient, robust active control of adaptive, lightweight wings to optimize lift distribution to maximize L/D. Cost-effectively, robustly improving the energy capture and reliability of wind turbines would help national renewable energy initiatives. A standalone aerodynamic load/moment sensor could provide output for robust control feedback to mitigate the turbine blade lifetime-limiting time varying loads generated by the ambient wind.

The combination of robust control and accurate real-time aerodynamic load/moment sensors will enable a number of revolutionary capabilities across a wide speed range, including, but not limited to: (1) shorter take-off and landing, (2) safe, reliable supersonic operation, and (3) larger passenger and cargo capacity. The primary difficulty in all three revolutionary capabilities is the uncertainty in aerodynamic load \& moments generated by the airstream in design and off-design conditions, e.g., turbulent flows and high angles of attack. Measuring the aerodynamic loads/moments reduces the aerodynamic uncertainty enabling the aircraft to timely, robustly compensate for the adverse flow conditions, and utilizing a robust control methodology will provide guarantees otherwise not available. Therefore, the proposed innovation could be of significant interest to the aircraft civilian industry.

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