Robust control via Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) H∞ or μ techniques has been extensively studied in the past few years. In this area, the theory is now quite mature. However, its limitation to linear time-invariant systems often remains a weakness which may give rise to well-founded criticisms. This has enforced the need for an extension of standard H∞ synthesis techniques to the class of Linear ...

Feedback control systems for aerospace applications must maintain precise control despite uncertain operating conditions and unanticipated circumstances such as battle damage. These systems must be designed to perform robustly, despite uncertain design models and difficult to analyze nonlinear effects. They must also be capable of learning and adapting when accumulating data indicates that prev...

The problem of modeling-uncertainties that may not conform to assumed prior bounds is considered from an adaptive control perspective, but without the standard assumptions of adaptive control. A supervisory control architecture is employed, based on the data-driven logic of unfalsification. The supervisory controller modifies or replaces controllers when sensor data falsifies the hypothesis tha...

Underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) play an important role in a number of shallow and deepwater missions for marine science, oil and gas extraction, exploration and salvage. In these applications, the motions of the ROV are guided either by a human pilot on a surface support vessel through an umbilical cord providing power and telemetry, or by an automatic pilot. In the case of automat...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are a viable alternative to manned aircraft and satellites for a variety of applications, including environmental monitoring, agriculture, and surveying. They promise greater precision and much lower operating costs than traditional methods. Critical to the success of UAV systems is the auto-pilot system which keeps the vehicle in the air and in control in the ab...

The work described in this paper was motivated by our experience with applying a framework for formal analysis of human-machine interactions (HMI) to a realistic model of an autopilot. The framework is built around a formally defined conformance relation called “fullcontrol” between an actual system and the mental model according to which the system is operated. Systems are well-designed if the...

Hybrid system theory lies at the intersection of the fields of engineering control theory and computer science verification. It is defined as the modeling, analysis, and control of systems that involve the interaction of both discrete state systems, represented by finite automata, and continuous state dynamics, represented by differential equations. The embedded autopilot of a modern commercial...

This thesis explores the use of velocity information obtained by a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to close the aircraft’s flight control loop. A novel framework to synthesize attitude information from GPS velocity vector measurements is discussed. The framework combines the benefits of high-quality GPS velocity measurements with a novel velocity vector based flight control paradigm to...

This paper describes a recently developed architecture for a Hardware-in-the-Loop simulator for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The principal idea is to use the advanced modeling capabilities of Simulink rather than hard-coded software as the flight dynamics simulating engine. By harnessing Simulink’s ability to precisely model virtually any dynamical system or phenomena this newly developed simulato...