Modeling and composite adaptive neural fault-tolerant tracking control for tailless aircraft

This article investigates the large attitude envelope flight path tracking control problem for tailless aircraft under uncertain parameters and actuator faults. Firstly, a 6-degree-of-freedom rigid model for tailless aircraft with switched dynamics and nonaffine actuator faults is established. Utilizing the time-scale principle, the tracking control problem is divided into the outer-loop flight path control and the inner-loop attitude and angular velocity control. Then, an incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion controller is designed for outer-loop control. For more responsive inner-loop control, a backstepping-based finite-time composite adaptive neural controller with prescribed performance is developed. By constructing the serial-parallel estimation model, the effects of total actuator faults can be exactly approximated by the Chebyshev neural network. Moreover, it is rigorously demonstrated that all signals of the inner-loop system remain stable in finite time. Eventually, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme are validated via comparative numerical simulations.

Automated summary

This article investigates the flight path tracking control problem for tailless aircraft under uncertain parameters and actuator faults. A 6-degree-of-freedom rigid model with switched dynamics and nonaffine actuator faults is established. The control problem is divided into outer-loop flight path control and inner-loop attitude and angular velocity control. An incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion controller is designed for outer-loop control, and a backstepping-based finite-time composite adaptive neural controller is developed for inner-loop control. The proposed control scheme effectively tracks the desired flight path and stabilizes the inner-loop system in finite time.