Adaptive Flight Control for Advanced Aircraft Concepts

Project Reference: 273558
Activity Code: FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF
Coordinator:Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt

Abstract

Worldwide aviation traffic is predicted to increase manifold, putting challenges on the safety and environmental impact of air transport. Safety as well as green aircraft fit in the EU FP 7 Research Vision for Aeronautics. This will require advanced aircraft concepts. Advances in the development of nonlinear and adaptive control theory turn these control algorithms into enabling technologies for these advanced aircraft concepts. Two important examples are fault tolerant and next generation "green aircraft. In the former category, a Fault Tolerant Flight System (FTFS) is capable to detect and adapt to changes in the aircraft behaviour. For next generation "green aircraft to enforce energy efficiency and environmental compatibility (fuel consumption, emissions and noise), nonconventional strategies are required to control them.

Therefore, this project will focus on some key aspects of reconfigurable flight systems for these new concepts. In my PhD, I have already focused on system identification and adaptive control and a few months abroad at DLR in Germany opened up a new perspective on adaptive control. However, flight envelope estimation and flight path prediction, to be considered in this research, are other crucial aspects which need to be included in the global setup of technological solutions for safety. Our approach differs from others since it is physically inspired. This more transparent approach allows interpreting data in each step, and it is assumed that these physical models based upon flight dynamics theory will therefore facilitate certification for future real life applications.

After the fundamental developments, research results will be evaluated in the highly sophisticated simulators and flight testbeds at NASA Ames and DLR Oberpfaffenhofen. Since the applicant acquired experience in the field of reconfigurable flight systems during his PhD research on FTFC, these research groups have great interest in this fellowship.

Project Details: 

Start Date: 2012-04-15
End Date: 2015-04-14
EU Contribution: 228 104 Euro
Total Costs: 228 104 Euro
Programme Acronym: FP7-People
Subprogramme Area: FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF Marie Curie Action: "International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development"