EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF AN ADAPTIVE CONTROLLER FOR A WIND-DRIVEN PITCH MANIPULATOR

The problem of control design for wind-driven manipulators is addresse d, and results of an experimental controller evaluation are described. Successful control design is essential to the use of the wind-driven manipulator for simulating aircraft maneuvers in a wind tunnel. Severa l wind-driven manipulator configurations are described, A second-order nonlinear state model for a pitch only manipulator is derived and val idated with experimental data, An adaptive feedback linearization algo rithm for the pitch manipulator is described. Experimental results are presented to show actual controller performance.