Adaptive spline function based compensation of synthetic jet actuators for aircraft flight control

In this paper, an adaptive scheme for controlling the aerodynamic flow using synthetic jet actuators over a commercial aircraft at a wide range of angles of attack is developed. Approximation of a nonlinearly parametrized model of the synthetic jet actuator characteristic by a linearly parametrized function is accomplished using a spline function approximator. An adaptive inverse is used to cancel the effect of the actuator nonlinearities and is implemented by another spline function approximator. An adaptive control design is applied to an aircraft model with synthetic jet actuators, which employs an adaptive actuator nonlinearity compensation scheme combined with a state feedback control law. Parameter projection based adaptive laws are employed to ensure desired closed-loop stability and tracking properties.