Improved State Feedback H∞ Control for Flexible Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles on LMI Approach

Abstract

Focusing on a nonlinear longitudinal dynamical model for Air-breathing Hypersonic Flight Vehicles (AHFV), a linearized model on a nominal trim condition is proposed. To stabilize the flight of an AHFV in the presence of external disturbances and actuator uncertainties, a state feedback H∞ control is designed. With bounds on the uncertainties, a feedback stabilization problem is converted to an optimal control problem and the cost function is minimized by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Since uncertainties in the design of AHFV are inevitable, to make a comparison, a general H∞ robust controller is constructed by only considering the disturbances firstly. Then the results are extended by incorporating the actual existing uncertainties as well as the external disturbances in the AHFV system. Numerical simulation shows that the controller, which takes both disturbances and uncertainties into account, can effectively stabilize the AHFV system.