Colloquium: Noah Stam (C&O)

Neglecting actuator dynamics in nonlinear control and control allocation can lead to performance degradation for fast dynamic systems. This thesis provides a dynamic incremental nonlinear control allocation method, or D-INCA. The incremental approach allows for the implementation of a first order discrete-time actuator dynamics model in the quadratic programming solver. This model is used to find the optimal command inputs in addition to the desired physical actuator deflections, hereby compensating for actuator dynamics delays and increasing closed loop stability margins. In addition, an actuator dynamics parameter estimator is introduced to adapt the actuator model online, minimizing actuator tracking errors after various actuator failures. The proposed methods are applied to a fighter aircraft model with an over-actuated innovative control effectors suite and results are compared to the baseline INCA controller.

Supervisor: Dr. ir. E.J.J. Smeur