Waverider Vehicles Flight Control Using Flexible Prescribed Envelopes

Waverider vehicles (WVs) have the prominent advantage of long-distance and rapid delivery over traditional vehicles, but meanwhile, it also brings new challenges in control system design. Consequently, it is crucial to develop a reliable controller with good transient performance and steady-state accuracy for WVs. This article introduces a non-fragile prescribed performance control (NPPC) scheme that incorporates a precise flexible term for WVs subject to actuator constraints. The proposed NPPC scheme addresses the fragility issue of traditional PPC through two approaches: firstly, by designing a finite-time anti-saturation compensation system (FACS) with adjustable convergence time to accurately compensate for tracking errors; secondly, by utilizing the FACS as an error sensor and developing a precisely tunable prescribed performance flexible term. Moreover, uncertainty-estimation-free controllers are designed for WVs under actuator constraints based on the NPPC scheme and backstepping design approach. Additionally, the stability of the proposed controllers is proven through Lyapunov analysis while their advantages are further demonstrated and validated through comparative simulations.