Nonlinear output feedback control design of a hypersonic vehicle via high gain observers

In this paper, the output feedback control problem for a genetic hypersonic vehicle is considered under the restriction that only the vehicle´s velocity and altitude are measurable. High gain observers (HGO) are utilized to provide estimation signals for unmeasurable derivatives of the vehicle´s velocity and altitude. A comprehensive stability analysis of the closed loop system under the output feedback control is carried to prove that the proposed control law yields semiglobal uniformly ultimately bounded tracking while keep all the closed loop signals bounded. Numerical simulation results are presented to validate the proposed control design.