Robust MRAC augmentation of flight control laws for center of gravity adaptation

Abstract

When an aircraft is flying and burning fuel the center of gravity (c.g.) of the aircraft shifts slowly. The c.g. can also be shifted abruptly when e.g. a fighter aircraft releases a weapon. The shift in c.g. is difficult to measure or estimate so the flight control systems need to be robustly designed to cope with this variation. However for fighter aircrafts with high manoeuvrability there is room for improvements. In this project we investigate if the use of adaptive control law augmentation can be used to better cope with the change in c.g. We augment a baseline controller with a robust Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) design and analyse its benefits and possible issues.