Disturbance-Tolerant Control for Variable-Sweep Aircraft Based on Multi-Disturbance Switching System

The aerodynamic parameters of a variable-sweep aircraft undergo significant changes during its morphing process, exerting a substantial impact on the aircraft’s dynamic characteristics. Therefore, a critical aspect involves investigating the modeling of the variable-sweep aircraft throughout its morphing process and addressing stability in flight control. This paper commences by establishing the variant aircraft model using openVSP software to acquire precise aerodynamic parameters. Capitalizing on its nonlinear longitudinal dynamics model, the construction of a linear switching model for the variant aircraft’s short-period switching is successfully accomplished. For the variable-sweep aircraft switching system, encountering multiple disturbances and actuator faults, a composite observer is intricately designed to simultaneously estimate external disturbances described by external systems and actuator faults. Subsequently, based on disturbance observer control and fault accommodation, a composite fault-tolerant controller with disturbance suppression is proposed. The attenuation characteristics are thoroughly analyzed using $L_{1}$ optimization performance indicators. Employing the Average Dwell Time method and Lyapunov function, a comprehensive stability analysis of the closed-loop system is conducted. Finally, the efficacy of the proposed approach is substantiated through numerical examples.