Robust Gain-Scheduled Flight Controller Using Inexact Scheduling Parameters

This paper is concerned with the design problem of Gain-Scheduled (GS) flight controller for the lateral-directional motions of an aircraft. For this problem, we first derive a continuous-time Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) system which represents the lateral-directional motions of the aircraft in its admissible flight envelope with airspeed being set as its scheduling parameter, then discretize it by using Euler first-order approximation, and finally design a discrete-time GS Output-Feedback (GSOF) controller which is robust against the uncertainties in the provided airspeed data. In the design process of the GSOF controller, robustness against uncertainties related to onboard actuator systems are also incorporated. Flight test was conducted to confirm control performance of our controller in real environment.