Speed control for aircraft based on nonlinear adaptive backstepping technology

According to the characteristics of the aircraft velocity vector, the velocity vector control problem is investigated. The relative degree is 2 for the speed, which is related to the virtual control input (the aircraft angular rate). The speed second-order differential equation is transformed into two first-order differential equations. By combining these two equations with an angle rate equation, the cascade condition for backstepping technology is satisfied. Then, a control law for speed and angle of sideslip tracking is designed using adaptive backstepping control, and a parameter estimation law is also given based on Lyapunov method. The mentioned control law and parameter estimation law can guarantee that the speed and angle of sideslip tracking error asymptotically converges to zero. The numerical simulation results based on F16 nonlinear model show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.