Improved prescribed performance control for air-breathing hypersonic vehicles with unknown deadzone input nonlinearity

• Published in: ISA transactions Vol. 79; pp. 95 - 107
• Main Authors: Wang, Yingyang, Hu, Jianbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2018
• Subjects: Back-stepping; Hypersonic vehicle; Non-affine; Prescribed performance control; Tracking control; Back-stepping; Hypersonic vehicle; Tracking control; Non-affine; Prescribed performance control
• ISSN: 0019-0578; 1879-2022; 1879-2022
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isatra.2018.05.008

An improved prescribed performance controller is proposed for the longitudinal model of an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (AHV) subject to uncertain dynamics and input nonlinearity. Different from the traditional non-affine model requiring non-affine functions to be differentiable, this paper utilizes a semi-decomposed non-affine model with non-affine functions being locally semi-bounded and possibly in-differentiable. A new error transformation combined with novel prescribed performance functions is proposed to bypass complex deductions caused by conventional error constraint approaches and circumvent high frequency chattering in control inputs. On the basis of backstepping technique, the improved prescribed performance controller with low structural and computational complexity is designed. The methodology guarantees the altitude and velocity tracking error within transient and steady state performance envelopes and presents excellent robustness against uncertain dynamics and deadzone input nonlinearity. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method. •A mild controllability condition for the non-affine system of the AHV is utilized.•New error transformation avoids the non-differentiable problem and complex deduction.•Novel performance function can prevent overrun and chattering of control inputs.•The proposed methodology eliminates the use of estimator, simplifying the control scheme.