Nonlinear Adaptive Control Law for ALFLEX Using Dynamic Inversion and Disturbance Accommodation Control Observer

In this paper, We present a new nonlinear adaptive control law using a disturbance accommodating control (DAC) observer for a Japanese automatic landing flight experiment vehicle called ALFLEX. A future spaceplane must have ability to deal with greater fluctuations in the stability and control derivatives of flight dynamics, because its flight region is much wider than that of conventional aircraft. In our previous studies, digital adaptive flight control systems have been developed based on a linear-parameter-varying (LPV) model depending on dynamic pressure, and obtained good simulation results. However, under previous control laws, it is difficult to accommodate uncertainties represented by disturbance and nonlinearity, and to design a stable flight control system. Therefore, in this study, we attempted to design a nonlinear adaptive control law using the DAC Observer and inverse dynamic methods. A good tracking property of the obtained system was confirmed in numerical simulation.