Research progresses on characteristic model-based control of hypersonic flight vehicles

Characteristic modeling based all coefficients adaptive control was proposed by Academician Wu Hong-Xin in 1980s. The theory is motivated and gradually enhanced to completion in the past three decades. This theory and method have already been applied successfully to the reentry adaptive control of manned spaceships, automatic rendezvous and docking between Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Tiangong-1, etc. In addition, the investigation on the characteristic modeling based all coefficients adaptive control for hypersonic flight vehicles have also made important progresses. In this paper, we will simply review the progresses and present the further research problems.