Non-fragile switching tracking control for a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle based on polytopic LPV model

This article proposes a linear parameter varying (LPV) switching tracking control scheme for a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (FAHV). First, a polytopic LPV model is constructed to represent the complex nonlinear longitudinal model of the FAHV by using Jacobian linearization and tensor-product (T-P) model transformation approach. Second, for less conservative controller design purpose, the flight envelope is divided into four sub-regions and a non-fragile LPV controller is designed for each parameter sub-region. These non-fragile LPV controllers are then switched in order to guarantee the closed-loop FAHV system to be asymptotically stable and satisfy a specified performance criterion. The desired non-fragile LPV switching controller is found by solving a convex constraint problem which can be efficiently solved using available linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques, and robust stability analysis of the closed-loop FAHV system is verified based on multiple Lypapunov functions (MLFs). Finally, numerical simulations have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of CSAA & BUAA.