Control of a high performance fighter aircraft using scheduled local nonlinear control laws

An extension to a recent result on scheduling local nonlinear control laws is presented. The scheduled nonlinear control law is such that, at any constant operating point (trim condition), the Taylor-series-expansion of the control law matches exactly the local nonlinear control law designed for that operating point. This method is applied to the control of the longitudinal dynamics of a high performance fighter aircraft. First, local nonlinear feedback controls are designed using local nonlinear optimal control design method at a number of operating points (i.e., different Mach numbers). Then these local nonlinear control laws are scheduled using the proposed scheduling method. Computer simulations are carried out to verify the design.