Conic gain-scheduled control of an aeroelastic airfoil

In this paper, a robust conic gain-scheduled is proposed to suppress oscillations of a twodimensional elastic airfoil. A simplified dynamic model of an elastic airfoil is considered, that includes a flap and a control torque applied directly to the airfoil, resulting in linear parameter-varying dynamics. The control objective is to actively suppress oscillations in the elastic twist of the airfoil, while ensuring robustness to variations in free-stream velocity and parametric model uncertainty. Closed-loop performance is achieved by synthesizing H₂-optimal conic controllers at strategically-chosen free-stream velocities. Robust closedloop input-output stability is ensured by the Conic Sector Theorem and the specific form of the scheduling signals used for gain scheduling. Numerical simulations demonstrate the performance and robustness of the proposed synthesis method over a range of free-stream velocities and in the presence of parametric uncertainty.