Method and computer program product for controlling the control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle

• US 20050178922A1
• Filed: 11/04/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Jones, Richard D., Musgrave, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,255,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 244/195
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/024 in which a parameter or coefficient is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0825 using mathematical models

Abstract

A method and computer program product are provided for controlling the control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle including, for example, the respective positions of nozzles and aerodynamic surfaces, to affect a desired change in the time rate of change of the system state vector. The method initially determines differences between anticipated changes in the states of the aerodynamic vehicle based upon the current state of each control effector, and desired state changes. These differences may be weighted based upon a predetermined criteria, such as the importance of the respective states and/or the weight to be attributed to outliers. The differences between the anticipated and desired state changes are converted to the corresponding rates of change of the control effectors. Control signals are then issued to the control effectors to affect the desired change in the time rate of change of the system state vector.

Claims

1. A computer program product for controlling a plurality of control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle having a plurality of states, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in said medium, the computer-readable program code comprising:

a first executable portion adapted to determine a current commanded state of the plurality of control effectors including the current commanded states of nozzle vectoring and at least one aerodynamic surface;

a second executable portion adapted to determine differences between anticipated changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle based upon the current commanded state of the plurality of control effectors and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle; and

a third executable portion adapted to control the plurality of control effectors at least partially based upon the differences in order to implement at least a portion of the desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle.

2. A computer program product according to claim 1 wherein said second executable portion is adapted to determine the anticipated changes in the plurality of states based upon the current commanded state of each control effector and current flight conditions.

3. A computer program product according to claim 1 wherein said third executable portion is adapted to adjust a control effector that effects a greater portion of the desired change more than a control effector that effects a smaller portion of the desired change.

4. A computer program product according to claim 1 further comprising a fourth executable portion adapted to limit the permissible change of at least one of the control effectors, wherein said third executable portion is adapted to control the plurality of control effectors based upon the weighted differences subject to limitations in the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors in order to implement at least a portion of the desired change in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle without exceeding the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors.

5. A computer program product according to claim 4 wherein said fourth executable portion is adapted to limit the permissible rate of change of at least one of the control effectors.

6. A computer program product according to claim 4 wherein said fourth executable portion is adapted to limit at least one of the control effectors to within a predefined range.

7. A computer program product according to claim 1 further comprising a fifth executable portion adapted to weight the differences between the anticipated and desired changes based upon a predetermined criteria, and wherein said third executable portion is adapted to control the plurality of control effectors at least partially based upon the weighted differences.

8. A computer program product according to claim 7 wherein said fifth executable portion is adapted to weight the differences based upon the relative importance of the respective states of the aerodynamic vehicle.

9. A computer program product according to claim 7 wherein said fifth executable portion is adapted to weight the differences based upon a predefined penalty having an effect that varies based upon the magnitude of a respective difference.

10. A computer program product according to claim 1 wherein said second executable portion is adapted to determine a first dot product of a vector representing the current commanded state of each control effectors and a matrix representing changes in the plurality of state rates of the aerodynamic vehicle in response to changes in the plurality of control effector, wherein the matrix is comprised of a plurality of terms, each term representing the anticipated change in a respective state rate of the aerodynamic vehicle in response to the change of a respective control effector, and wherein said second executable portion is also adapted to obtain a vector difference between the first dot product and a vector representing the desired change in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle.

11. A computer program product according to claim 10 further comprising a sixth executable portion adapted to construct the matrix to represent changes in the state rates associated with lift, attitude and a plurality of engine parameters of the aerodynamic vehicle in response to changes in the plurality of control effectors.

12. A computer program product according to claim 10 further comprising a seventh executable portion adapted to determine a second dot product of the weighted vector difference and a transpose of the matrix representing changes in the plurality of state rates of the aerodynamic vehicle in response to changes in the plurality of control effectors, and wherein said third executable portion is adapted to control the plurality of control effectors at least partially based upon the second dot product.

13. A computer program product according to claim 12 further comprising an eighth executable portion adapted to weight the second dot product based upon the relative importance of the respective control effectors such that the plurality of control effectors are controlled based, at least partially, upon the weighted second dot product.