Recent progress of control approaches for Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles

Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles (AHVs) are kind of winged or wingless aerospace vehicles, which could fulfill cruising flight in the atmosphere 20∼100 kilometers above the ground and travel five times faster than sound. The AHVs' dynamic model manifests such characteristics as nonlinearity, quick time-variance, uncertainty, strong couplings and non-minimum phase, et al, which make the controller design of AHVs significant and challenging. Based on relative researches both home and abroad, several control approaches related with this issue are discussed, particularly in different classifications, pointing out some shortcomings and unsolved problems for further modifications therein. Finally, in accordance with the requirements of robustness, adaptability, fault-tolerance and intellectuality for AHVs, potential development trends and challenges are suggested.