Robust Incremental Model Predictive Control for Morphing Aircraft Exploiting the Tube Technique

The morphing aircraft exhibits significant nonlinearity and high uncertainty during the deformation process, imposing significant challenges for controller design. In this paper, we propose a tube-based incremental model predictive control (Tubebased IMPC) for a morphing aircraft. First, we establish a nonlinear model for the morphing aircraft according to aircraft's dynamics. Subsequently, in order to reduce dependence on the mathematical model of morphing aircraft, the continuous-time nonlinear system is reformulated as an incremental system through time-delay estimation (TDE), and an incremental model predictive control (IMPC) is developed based on the incremental system. Then, to enhance robustness of IMPC in terms of the state constraint satisfaction, a Tube-based IMPC is developed where an add-on control term is designed and tightened state and input constraints are employed. Finally, to verify the effectiveness of the Tube-based IMPC, numerical simulations are conducted, and results show that the system can achieve tracking performance while satisfying strict constraints.