Aircraft Energy Management: Finite-time Optimal Control with Dynamic Constraints

Traditional aircraft design has been based on peak power and peak thermal loads. With the introduction of more-electric aircraft, increasing requirements for on-demand highquality power for flight controls and electro-mechanical actuation devices will pose further challenges for energy efficiency and mission capability. This paper examines a new dynamic optimization strategy for energy management of more-electric aircraft based on hybrid systems theory. An expressive framework is developed to address the pertinent issues for energy management in aircraft systems, creation of optimization metrics, implementation of necessary computational tools and initial verification through simulation.