Pitch-Rate Control Augmentation System Design for Delayed Measurements

The pitch-rate control augmentation system is important especially for the military aerospace industry. In this study, it is shown that the classical control structure in the literature cannot cope with the time-delays that may occur in the measurements and a new control structure, based on a modified Smith predictor, is proposed. This proposed structure is verified by nonlinear flight simulations, where all dynamics of the F-16 aircraft are taken into account, including the nonlinearities in the elevator dynamics. With these nonlinear flight simulations, which are undertaken under a realistic scenario, it is shown that the proposed control system can cope with the time-delays and can successfully track pitch-rate commands.