Adaptive Compensation of Aircraft Actuation Failures Using an Engine Differential Model

This paper investigates actuator failure compensation for aircraft flight control in a novel framework. A general failure compensation scheme for asymptotic tracking is developed based on a direct adaptive control approach. This control scheme is capable of utilizing the remaining control authority to achieve the desired performance in the presence of unknown and uncertain constant actuator failures occurring at unknown time instants. A nonlinear aircraft model that incorporates independently adjustable engine throttles and ailerons is employed and linearized to describe the aircraft´s longitudinal and lateral motion. This model captures the key features of aircraft flight dynamics when in the engine differential mode. The proposed control scheme is applied to a transport aircraft model in the presence of three types of failures during operation: rudder failure, aileron failure, and engine malfunction. Simulation results are presented to assess the effectiveness of this adaptive failure compensation design.