Robust control design for the FLEXOP demonstrator aircraft via tensor product models

The paper proposes a control design methodology for active flutter suppression for the aeroservoelastic (ASE) aircraft of the European project FLEXOP. The aim of the controller is to robustly stabilize the aeroelastic modes. The control design is based on a control-oriented linear parameter-varying (LPV) model, which is derived via "bottom-up" modeling approach and includes the parametric uncertainties of the flutter modes. The tensor product (TP) type LPV model is generated via TP model transformation. The symmetric and asymmetric flutter modes are decoupled, which allows independent control design for each. LPV observer-based state feedback control structure is applied with constraints on the maximal control value to avoid input saturation. The scheduling parameters of the TP-type LPV models are split into measured and uncertain parameters for robust control design. Convex hull manipulation-based optimization and model complexity effects are investigated. The resulting controller is validated via the high-fidelity ASE model of the FLEXOP aircraft.