MU-SYNTHESIS FOR A SMALL COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT: DESIGN AND SIMULATOR VALIDATION

The potential benefits deriving from the application of modern multivariable techniques to the flight control laws design for a fly-by-wire small commercial aircraft are evaluated by means of a practical benchmark problem. For such a class of airplanes, a unified set of flying qualities requirements is not available; therefore, a first effort has been made to formulate a suitable set of requirements to be followed during the design phase. On the basis of such requirements, a reference dynamic model of the aircraft has been chosen. Then a model matching H-inf, control problem has been solved via the mu-synthesis approach, which allows disturbance rejection and robustness specifications to be taken into account. Finally, the designed flight control laws have been evaluated by means of both numerical off-line simulations and pilot-in-the-loop simulations performed via the ground-based simulator located at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam. The research activity has been performed within the framework of the research project Affordable Digital Fly-By-Wire Flight Control Systems funded by the IV Framework Program (1997-2000) of the European community.