Adaptive Flight Control in the Presence of Input Constraints

Aerospace systems such as aircraft or missiles are subject to environmental and dynamical uncertainties. These uncertainties can alter the performance and stability of these systems. Adaptive control offers a useful means for controlling systems in the presence of uncertainties. However, very often adaptive controllers require more control effort than the actuator limits allow. In this thesis the original work of others on single input single output adaptive control in the presence of actuator amplitude limits is extended to multi-input systems. The Lyapunov based stability analysis is presented. Finally, the resultant technique is applied to aircraft and missile longitudinal motion. Simulation results show satisfactory tracking of the states of modified reference system.