Flight control design with robustness and handling quality requirements

This paper proposes a design procedure for a classical flight control system with robustness and handling quality specifications. The approach relies on Guardian maps and consists in characterizing controller gain parameters such that the resulting closed-loop poles all lie within a specific region ω. This region represents the projection of certain types of handling qualities into the complex s-plane. A multivariable polynomial in the gains is used to obtain the set of gains which place the closed-loop poles in the desired region ω. The same tool is also used to study the robustness of the controller for varying weights and centers of gravity. The data used corresponds to that of a Bombardier Inc. aircraft in longitudinal flight.