Robust integrated flight control-design under failures, damage, and state-dependent disturbances

A robust integrated fault-tolerant flight control system is presented that accommodates different types of actuator failures and control effector damage, even while rejecting state-dependent disturbances. It is shown that a decentralized failure detection, identification,and reconfiguration system, combined judiciously with adaptive laws for damage estimates and variable structure adjustment laws for disturbance estimates, yields a stable system despite simultaneous presence of failures, damage and disturbances. The proposed system is well suited for the case of first-order actuator dynamics. The properties of the proposed algorithms are illustrated on a medium-fidelity nonlinear simulation of Boeing's Tailless Advanced Fighter Aircraft.