Output Feedback Sliding Mode Control of a Fixed-Wing UAV Under Rudder Loss

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to design a Dynamic discrete output feedback SMC for fixed wing aircraft under rudder loss operation. Recently, UAVs have been utilized in many commercial and military applications. However, due to environmental factors and unforeseeable mechanical failures, complete loss of control may occur. To deal with this type of malfunctions fault detection and fault tolerant control is developed. Being one of the most prevalent failure, the rudder loss which is caused by mechanical or electronic factors is studied in this paper, and an ODSMC controller design is presented for this scenario. To derive the linearized model around the operation point, the small disturbance theory is used. Based on this derived linear model for the rudder loss operation ODSMC which is a one type of robust control strategy is employed. Owing to its output feedback nature, the process of designing a state estimator is also eliminated. The rudder loss scenario for Apprentice S model aircraft was simulated in MATLAB/Simulink environment and the satisfactory results were achieved. © 2019 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.