CONSTRAINED CONTROL ALLOCATION - 3-MOMENT PROBLEM

This paper presents a method for the solution of the constrained contr ol allocation problem for the case of three moments. The control alloc ation problem is to find the ''best'' combination of several flight co ntrol effectors for the generation of specified body-axis moments. The number of controls is greater than the number of moments being contro lled, and the ranges of the controls are constrained to certain limits . The controls are assumed to be individually linear in their effect t hroughout their ranges of motion and complete in the sense that they g enerate moments in arbitrary combinations. The best combination of con trols is taken to be an apportioning of the controls that yields the g reatest total moment in a specified ratio of moments without exceeding any control constraint. The method of solving the allocation problem is presented as an algorithm and is demonstrated for a problem of seve n aerodynamic controls on an F-18 airplane.