Construction of an aircraft stabilizing control using the Lyapunov function

The complete non-linear equations of motion of an aircraft, treated as an absolutely rigid body, are considered. The control parameters are the engine thrust and the angles of deviation of the rudders. The problem of stabilizing a programmed regime of the aircraft motion is formulated. The regime is described by specifying the variation with time of the velocity vectors of the mass centre and the angular velocity. The so-called ''kinetic energy of the deviations'' is taken as a Lyapunov function, and a stabilizing control is written explicitly. It is proved that the control ensures asymptotic stability of ''practically'' any programmed regime of motion. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.