A backstepping based flight control design for an overactuated flying wing aircraft

A backstepping based flight control system is presented for an overactuated flying wing aircraft, where the nonlinear control allocation method based on the combination of affine mapping and redistributed pseudo inverse is used to distribute the control command to eight aerodynamic control surfaces of the aircraft. Performance of the control system is evaluated in nonlinear simulation for the level-wing non-sideslipping and, the coordinated turning flight conditions. A nonlinear feedback compensator is also proposed for use with the backstepping controller. The compensator enhances the performance of backstepping based flight path angle controller while operating in the coordinated turning flight condition. The simulation results for each flight condition are presented, whereas a comparison between backstepping flight control system with and without the proposed compensator is also provided.