Hierarchical design of integrated control for hypersonic vehicles

A hierarchical design methodology for decentralized integrated control of a hypersonic vehicle is described. A hierarchical design methodology is developed for an integrated model comprising many subsystems. The design objective for the higher level of augmentation is to compensate for subsystems´ interactions by making the subsystems as weakly coupled as possible through this level of augmentation. With a reduced coupling strength between subsystems, individual subsystems can be augmented separately and independently irrespective of their interactions. The combination of the two levels of augmentation results in an integrated control scheme with reduced complexity in both the design and structure of the controller. The design methodology is applied to an integrated dynamic model of an engine and airframe for a hypersonic vehicle. The derived control laws are compared with a nonintegrated design technique for an identical design objective. It is shown that the proposed integrated control scheme reduces the stabilizing surface deflection requirements in control power partitioning