Control law design for a thrust vectoring fighter aircraft using robust inverse dynamics estimation (RIDE)

Control laws have been designed for a high performance fighter aircraft using robust inverse dynamics estimation (RIDE) with the aim of providing good control at high angles of attack. This necessitates the use of thrust vectoring in flight conditions where aerodynamic control surfaces become ineffective. It is shown that the RIDE controller is able to transfer smoothly from using the aerodynamic surfaces to thrust vectoring during post-stall manoeuvring. The RIDE controller is structured so as to estimate the inverse dynamics of the aircraft and gives the designer freedom to assign the dynamics of the controlled states. Simulation results demonstrate that RIDE provides a simple method for the design of control laws which give specified response characteristics across the flight envelope and are robust to plant variations.