Design of a controller for morphing aircraft based on the LQ/RHO multi-loop technology

In order to ensure the flight stability of morphing aircraft under the morph state, a multi-loop controller was proposed. The inner-loop controller was designed by the linear quadratic (LQ) output feedback approach, which was used to ensure stability under the fixed-wing state. In the process of morphing, an indeterminate term was introduced to describe the interferences and unmodeled dynamics. The outer-loop controller was designed by the receding horizon optimal (RHO) algorithm, which was used to calculate the real-time control correction value within a finite horizon. The simulation results show that the proposed controller is able to yield a consistent response regardless of morph rate, and that it satisfies the requirements of real-time and robustness.