Constrained Control Strategies to Improve Safety and Comfort on Aircrafts

The present paper explores the possibility of applying to an aircraft a novel constrained control methodology known as the command governor to improve flight safety and comfort. The proposed strategy is based on predictive control ideas and consists of the separate design of two control actions: an inner primal linear controller that guarantees the tracking of the controlled variables in the absence of constraints and an outer nonlinear static device (the command governor) that is compelled to modify, whenever necessary, the reference signals supplied to the inner controller by taking into account the limitations imposed by the aerodynamics, structures, actuators, and onboard comfort requirements. The reference signal modification is accomplished through an online constrained optimization procedure, which embodies the future plant evolution computed along a finite virtual time horizon. Two numerical examples are developed on a high-performance military aircraft and a small commercial aircraft.