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

• US 6,814,330 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2002
• Issued: 11/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Musgrave, Jeffrey L., Jones, Richard D.
• Primary Examiner(s): DINH, TIEN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US10/317,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20040113021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 698 Days
• Field of Search: 244/76.R, 244/175, 244/182, 244/177, 244/180, 244/181, 701/3, 701/4, 701/8
• US Class Current: 244/76.00R
• 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. An integrated method of controlling a plurality of control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle having a plurality of states, the method comprising:

determining a current commanded state of the plurality of control effectors including the current commanded states of nozzle vectoring and at least one aerodynamic surface;

determining the anticipated changes in the plurality of states based upon the current commanded state of each control effector and current flight conditions;

determining 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

controlling 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. An integrated method according to claim 1 wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors comprises adjusting 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.

3. An integrated method according to claim 1 further comprising limiting the permissible change of at least one of the control effectors, wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors comprises controlling 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.

4. An integrated method according to claim 3 wherein limiting the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors comprises limiting the permissible rate of change of at least one of the control effectors.

5. An integrated method according to claim 3 wherein limiting the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors comprises limiting at least one of the control effectors to within a predefined range.

6. An integrated method of controlling a plurality of control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle having a plurality of states, the method comprising:

determining a current commanded state of the plurality of control effectors including the current commanded states of nozzle vectoring and at least one aerodynamic surface;

determining 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;

weighting the differences between the anticipated and desired changes based upon a predetermined criteria, and

controlling 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, wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors is at least partially based upon the weighted differences.

7. An integrated method according to claim 6 wherein weighting the differences comprises weighting the differences based upon the relative importance of the respective states of the aerodynamic vehicle.

8. An integrated method according to claim 6 wherein weighting the differences comprises weighting the differences based upon a predefined penalty having an effect that varies based upon the magnitude of a respective difference.

9. An integrated method of controlling a plurality of control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle having a plurality of states, the method comprising:

determining a current commanded state of the plurality of control effectors including the current commanded states of nozzle vectoring and at least one aerodynamic surface;

determining 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, wherein determining the differences between the anticipated and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle comprises;

determining 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

obtaining a vector difference between the first dot product and a vector representing the desired change in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle; and

controlling 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.

10. An integrated method according to claim 9 further comprising constructing 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.

11. An integrated method according to claim 9 further comprising determining 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 controlling the plurality of control effectors is at least partially based upon the second dot product.

12. An integrated method according to claim 11 further comprising weighting 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.

13. An integrated method of controlling a plurality of control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle having a plurality of states, the method comprising:

determining a current commanded state of a plurality of control effectors including the current commanded state of at least one aerodynamic surface and at least one control effector selected from the group consisting of thrust variations and nozzle vectoring;

determining 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;

weighting the differences based upon at least one of the relative importance of the respective states of the aerodynamic vehicle and a predefined penalty having an effect that varies based upon the magnitude of a respective difference; and

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

14. An integrated method according to claim 13 wherein determining the differences between the anticipated and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle comprises determining the anticipated changes in the plurality of states based upon the current commanded state of each control effector and current flight conditions.

15. An integrated method according to claim 13 wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors comprises adjusting 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.

16. An integrated method according to claim 13 further comprising limiting the permissible change of at least one of the control effectors, wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors comprises controlling 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.

17. An integrated method according to claim 16 wherein limiting the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors comprises limiting the permissible rate of change of at least one of the control effectors.

18. An integrated method according to claim 16 wherein limiting the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors comprises limiting at least one of the control effectors to within a predefined range.

19. An integrated method according to claim 13 wherein determining the differences between the anticipated and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle comprises:

determining 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

obtaining a vector difference between the first dot product and a vector representing the desired change in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle, and

wherein weighting the differences comprises weighting the vector difference.

20. An integrated method according to claim 19 further comprising constructing 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.

21. An integrated method according to claim 19 further comprising determining 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 controlling the plurality of control effectors is at least partially based upon the second dot product.

22. An integrated method according to claim 19 further comprising weighting 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.

23. An integrated method of controlling a plurality of control effectors of an aerodynamic vehicle having a plurality of states, the method comprising:

determining a current commanded state of a plurality of control effectors including the current commanded state of at least one aerodynamic surface and at least one control effector selected from the group consisting of thrust variations and nozzle vectoring;

determining differences between anticipated changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle based upon the current commanded state of each of the plurality of control effectors and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle;

limiting the permissible change of at least one of the control effectors; and

controlling the plurality of control effectors at least partially based upon differences between the anticipated and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle 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.

24. An integrated method according to claim 23 wherein determining the differences between the anticipated and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle comprises determining the anticipated changes in the plurality of states based upon the current commanded state of each control effector and current flight conditions.

25. An integrated method according to claim 23 wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors comprises adjusting 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.

26. An integrated method according to claim 23 wherein limiting the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors comprises limiting the permissible rate of change of at least one of the control effectors.

27. An integrated method according to claim 23 wherein limiting the permissible changes of at least one of the control effectors comprises limiting at least one of the control effectors to within a predefined range.

28. An integrated method according to claim 23 further comprising weighting the differences between the anticipated and desired changes based upon a predetermined criteria, and wherein controlling the plurality of control effectors is at least partially based upon the weighted differences.

29. An integrated method according to claim 28 wherein weighting the differences comprises weighting the differences based upon the relative importance of the respective states of the aerodynamic vehicle.

30. An integrated method according to claim 28 wherein weighting the differences comprises weighting the differences based upon a predefined penalty having an effect that varies based upon the magnitude of a respective difference.

31. An integrated method according to claim 23 wherein determining the differences between the anticipated and desired changes in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle comprises:

determining a first dot product of a vector representing the current commanded state of each of the plurality of 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 effectors, 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

obtaining a vector difference between the first dot product and a vector representing the desired change in the plurality of states of the aerodynamic vehicle.

32. An integrated method according to claims 31 further comprising constructing 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.

33. An integrated method according to claim 31 further comprising determining a second dot product of a representation of the 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 controlling the plurality of control effectors is at least partially based upon the second dot product.

34. An integrated method according to claim 31 further comprising weighting 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.