Flight evaluation of an LPV sliding mode controller with online control allocation

This paper presents the results of flight tests of a fault tolerant sliding mode controller implemented on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Multi-Purpose Aviation Laboratory aircraft. These represent the first validation tests of a sliding mode control allocation scheme on a piloted flight test. In this scheme, information about the actuator faults is assumed to be estimated online from a fault detection unit and the available actuators are fully utilized in the presence of actuator faults, in an effort to retain nominal fault free performance. Specifically the flight tests results demonstrate good lateral-directional state tracking performance in the fault free case with no visible performance degradation in the presence of rudder and aileron faults. In fact, during the flight test, the evaluation pilot did not detect any degradation in manoeuvrability when the actuator faults occurred.