H∞ output tracking control for flight control systems with time-varying delay

For flight control systems with time-varying delay, an H∞ output tracking controller is proposed. The controller is designed for the discrete-time state-space model of general aircraft to reduce the effects of uncertainties of the mathematical model, external disturbances, and bounded time-varying delay. It is assumed that the feedback-control loop is closed by the communication network, and the network-based control architecture induces time-delays in the feedback information. Suppose that the time delay has both an upper bound and a lower bound. By using the Lyapunov-Krasovskii function and the linear matrix inequality (LMI), the delay-dependent stability criterion is derived for the time-delay system. Based on the criterion, a state-feedback H∞ output tracking controller for systems with norm-bounded uncertainties and time-varying delay is presented. The control scheme is applied to the high incidence research model (HIRM), which shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.