Aircrafts state estimation by using an adaptive observer for MIMO linear time varying systems

Most important adaptive observers study the SISO (single-input-single-output) systems; the generalization of these algorithms for the case of MIMO (multi-input-multi-output) systems is difficult to be made. One of the most important algorithms for state estimation in the case of MIMO linear time varying systems (LTV) was designed by Qinghua Zhang [1]; the algorithm is simple, computationally efficient, viable, and easy to implement software. The Zhang adaptive observer is used in this paper to estimate the state of the aircrafts longitudinal and lateral motions. Two examples are considered: the first one represents the longitudinal motion of a Charlie aircraft, while the second example is associated to the lateral motion of a Boeing 747 airplane.