Control of extremely lightweight, long endurance aircraft poses a challenging aeroservoelastic (ASE) problem due to significantly increased flexibility, and aerodynamic, structural, and actuator nonlinearities. To obtain the benefits of increased aerostructural efficiency, the controller needs to trim at a specified optimal shape while minimizing structural fatigue from gust disturbances. Tao Systems and Texas A&M University propose to develop a distributed, passivity-based, ASE controller (DPASC) using sectional aerodynamic and structural output-only feedback. This scalable, decentralized approach has the potential to minimize the impact of aerodynamic / structural uncertainties and control surface free-play / saturation, while guaranteeing global asymptotic stability.
