Tiltrotor aircraft attitude control in conversion mode based on optimal preview control

An attitude control method based on optimal preview control for tiltrotor aircraft in conversion mode is proposed in this paper. A nonlinear model and a linear mathematical model for a tiltrotor aircraft are given. For the attitude control problem of the aircraft, a preview controller based on the error system model is designed, which produces seven control variables signals to control the pitch, roll and yaw movements of the aircraft. The controller is composed of two parts, one is feedforward loop which fuses the future previewed information, the other is feedback loop which equals to the optimal state feedback control. Then a Dryden turbulence is added to impact the aircraft in simulation. The simulation results show that the previewed information is beneficial for improving the accuracy of attitude tracking control and capacity of resisting disturbance.