Controller design for a digital flight control system DFCS

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Controller design for a digital flight control system DFCS

Chudy, Peter / Rzucidlo, Pawel

General Aviation has been traditionally hampered by the expense and time required to get a pilot's license and the instrument rating required for flight in less-than-ideal weather. Modern digital flight control technologies greatly improve handling qualities and flight safety compared to the even best naturally stable, un-augmented aircraft designs. Digital Flight Control System (DFCS) represents a control strategy which transforms a simplistic control surface commanding into a sophisticated motion control process. It is discussed the design of two flight controllers for DFCS. One is based on the classical 'best practice' design, the other features Total Energy Control System logic. Both control systems were subjected to simulations. The advantage of the TECS proved to be in excellent performance and moderate complexity of the resulting controller structure compared to classical control law design. TECS's expected ability to support proven analytical tools compatible with the airworthiness certification procedure makes it an ideal candidate for implementation on board of a General Aviation aircraft. This paper is organized as follows. The next section provides an overview of classical controller design for flight path angle control. The section thereafter introduces Total Energy Control System (TECS). Both control design methodologies demonstrate its capabilities by the means of simulations. Final section describes the pilot-in-the-loop simulations.