CONSTRUCTION OF AN AIRCRAFT STABILIZING CONTROL USING THE LYAPUNOV FUNCTION

The complete non-linear equations of motion of an aircraft, treated as an absolutely rigid body, are considered. The control parameters are the engine thrust and the angles of deviation of the rudders. The prob lem of stabilizing a programmed regime of the aircraft motion is formu lated. The regime is described by specifying the variation with time o f the velocity vectors of the mass centre and the angular velocity. Th e so-called ''kinetic energy of the deviations'' is taken as a Lyapuno v function, and a stabilizing control is written explicitly. It is pro ved that the control ensures asymptotic stability of ''practically'' a ny programmed regime of motion. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.