Implementation and testing of LPV controllers for the NASA F/A-18 systems research aircraft

Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) techniques are used to design gain-scheduled, multivariable controllers for the longitudinal and lateral-directional axes of the Class B flight envelope for NASA's F/A- 18 System Research Aircraft (SRA) (Figure 1). The Class B flight envelope is composed of Mach 0.25 to 0.7, 16K ft to 32K ft altitude and dynamic pressure from 50 to 200 psf. The objective is to synthesize LPV controllers that achieve the same flying qualities as the baseline F/A-18 SRA flight controller, and that meet military robustness specifications. Time simulations of the LPV controllers in NASA's high fidelity non-linear simulator show that the LPV designs achieve similar performance to that of the baseline F/A-18 SRA design in both the longitudinal and lateral-directional axes.