Robust aeroelastic control of flapped wing systems using a sliding mode observer

The performance of a robust control strategy applied to a three-degrees-of-freedom (3-DOF) flap-wing aeroelastic system impacted by a pressure pulse in the subcritical flight speed regime is investigated. The goal of its implementation is to suppress flutter instability and reduce the vibrational level in the subcritical flight speed range. To this end, the linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control methodology in conjunction with a sliding mode observer (SMO) are used. Comparisons with the counterpart results obtained via implementation of LQG controller with conventional Kalman filter (KF) are also provided and pertinent conclusions are outlined.