Robust adaptive control for a longitudinal model of mars airplane

In recent years, Mars airplane has been developed as a complete science-focused mission for the deep space exploration. However, the airplane flying in the complicated Mars environments must address some difficult issues that are not encountered for the traditional vehicles on earth. As a result, these issues, which need to be solved, present a large design challenge for Mars airplane. In this paper, the robust adaptive control methods for Mar airplane are put forwards in order to guarantee the flight stability and improve the system robustness under the uncertain flight conditions. First, a longitudinal model of Mars airplane is established according to the different flight altitudes and velocities. Then the dynamic characteristics of this model are analyzed so as to determine the control goals. Afterwards, the robust adaptive control system is designed based on the differential geometry theory and the backstepping method such that the proposed control law can meet the anticipated mission demands. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control systems is verified by using the numerical simulation, and the corresponding results show the flight stability and the track performance can be guaranteed for Mars airplane.