Design and ground-based simulation of an H-infinity limited authority flight control system for the Westland Lynx helicopter

We discuss the design and present results from the ground-based piloted sim ulation of an H-infinity limited authority control system. The control syst em was designed for the Westland Lynx helicopter in order to achieve good p erformance and robustness, while still adhering to series actuator limits. The configuration used is described and it is demonstrated that H-infinity, is a particularly useful technique in this situation, both for controller synthesis and anti-windup compensation. Desktop testing and piloted simulat ion results suggest that this type of system can offer an attractive soluti on to the limited authority problem. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et med icales Elsevier SAS.