Mode-transition control law design for aircraft with ability of VTOL and high-speed cruise flight

The considered aircraft can provide an economical combination of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability with efficient high-speed cruise flight. The sliding mode control laws are proposed in this paper for flight path tracking and attitude control to achieve the mode transition. Besides, a control allocation algorithm based on the sliding mode control law is designed. The design overcomes the defect of the original mode-transition algorithm which is sensitive to the noise. By using this design, the aircraft can achieve the mode-transition and path tracking under measurement noise which is reasonable. The efficiency of this mode-transition control law is verified by simulations.