Intelligent flight control: what are the flight programs and why develop this technology?

The Boeing Company is conducting a series of programs with NASA, DARPA, and the USAF that apply intelligent control technology to flight control systems. These control systems are designed to adapt to off-nominal damage or failure conditions. Reconfigurable control, artificial neural network models, self-learning neural networks, and matrix inverse control methods are some of the technologies used in these flight research projects. This paper addresses the need for intelligent control and the general requirements for the design of intelligent systems. A description is given of the major intelligent controls programs being conducted by Boeing.