PECASE: Robust Intelligent Control, Demonstrated for Reconfigurable Flight Systems

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Recent advances in a variety of technologies and applications call for improved performance andreliability, while exacerbating the complexity and uncertainty of systems and their surroundings.Although classical control theory already allows for a high degree of machine automation, arenewed interest in systems that display intelligent behavior is emerging across disciplines. Theproposed research will develop a novel adaptive control approach that approximates the nonlinearcontrol law by a sigmoidal neural network, and optimizes its performance on line, subject toactual plant dynamics. By combining approximate dynamic programming and integral quadraticconstraints, it can be shown that the neural network controller is characterized by the sameclosed-loop stability and robustness guarantees as classical H-infinity controllers. Ensuring thatthese properties are preserved during adaptation will make the adaptive design viable forapplications where safety is a leading concern, such as, reconfigurable aircraft control.As part of the proposed research, the adaptive control approach will be demonstrated not onlythrough numerical simulations, but also through experiments. The first testbed will consist of acantilevered beam with piezoelectric devices used as disturbance and control sources. In theexperiments, the effectiveness of the adaptive controller for reducing the vibration of the first twonatural modes will be tested and compared to that of controllers with parameters held fixed.After considering this low-dimensional system, the approach will be implemented to design anadaptive flight controller based on the model of an experimental fly-by-wire Raytheon Bonanzaaircraft. The flight controller will be tested on a piloted simulator developed by an experiencedresearch group at Wichita State University (WSU). Subsequently, the PI will work with the WSUgroup and Raytheon Aircraft Company on interfacing the control software with the on-boardflight computer, and on testing it on the Bonanza through a set of experimental flights.Research and education on control theory and practice will be integrated by designing a set ofexperiments for undergraduate and TIP high-school students that employ the following testbeds: avibrating cantilevered beam, an acoustic enclosure, and a flapping micro-aerial vehicle. Thebroader impact of this project is the creation of initiatives that expose students from K12 throughgraduate school to advanced control research and experiments being conducted in the aerospaceindustry and at NASA. By leading undergraduates and TIP students through these experiments,the PI's graduate students will become important role models for a diverse and gifted group ofyoungsters.