Verifiable Adaptive Flight Control: UCAV and Aerial Refueling

This paper presents application of L1 adaptive controller to two benchmark flight control applications. The benefit of the proposed adaptive control approach is its promise for development of theoretically justified tools for Verification and Validation (V&V) of adaptive systems. It has apriori predictable performance bounds and guaranteed, bounded away from zero, time-delay margin in the presence of fast adaptation. Two flight control examples, Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) and Aerial Refueling Autopilot, are considered in the presence of nonlinear uncertainties and control surface failures. The L1 adaptive controller without any redesign leads to scaled response for system’s both signals, input and output, dependent upon changes in the initial conditions, system parameters and uncertainties.