An Adaptive Control Framework for the Autonomous Aerobatic Maneuvers of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This article proposes an adaptive flight framework that integrates a discrete-time incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion controller and a neural network (NN)-based observer for maneuvering flight. The framework is built on the feedback-inversion scheme in which the adaptive neural network augments a discrete-time disturbance observer in the loop. The effects of the modeling uncertainties and the exogenous perturbations are both taken into consideration and are alleviated by the observer. By utilizing the Lyapunov synthesis method, the updating rule of the NN's weights is introduced, which guarantees the system's stability with enhanced tracking performance. The efficiency of the proposed scheme is presented through numerical verification of a 6-DOF fixed-wing fighter performing several aggressive flight maneuvers. Extensive simulation results illustrate that this versatile controller is more practical for aerobatic flights compared with the discontinuous sliding mode (DSM) and the nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI) methods. Given well-generated maneuver commands, the aircraft can accurately track the aggressive reference in the presence of modeling perturbations such as changes in aerodynamic coefficient, inertial parameters, and wind gusts.

Automated summary

This article proposes an adaptive flight framework that combines a discrete-time incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion controller and a neural network-based observer for maneuvering flight. The framework takes into consideration modeling uncertainties and exogenous perturbations and uses the observer to alleviate their effects. By utilizing the Lyapunov synthesis method, the updating rule of the neural network's weights is introduced to enhance tracking performance and guarantee system stability. Numerical verification of a 6-DOF fixed-wing fighter performing aggressive flight maneuvers demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Extensive simulation results show that this versatile controller is more practical for aerobatic flights compared to other methods such as DSM and NDI.