Modeling and switching adaptive control for nonlinear morphing aircraft considering actuator dynamics

This paper investigates the problems of modeling and control of the morphing aircraft. Henceforth, a nonlinear dynamic model of a wing-sweep morphing aircraft is first established in this work. This model is suitable for larger envelopes by elaborating the variation of aerodynamic coefficients, air density, mass distribution at different altitudes, Mach numbers, and sweep angles. Considering the alterations in the dynamic characteristics of the morphing aircraft owing to the various flight conditions, we design the switching adaptive backstepping controllers for the altitude subsystem and velocity subsystem. The actuator dynamics have been explicitly included in the process of the controller design to alleviate the chattering problem caused by the switching. Furthermore, the closed-loop stability is rigorously proved via the Lyapunov stability theory and the technique of compact set. Comparative results from the simulations finally validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.