Sensitivities & functional gains for a flexible aircraft-inspired model

Aeroelastic wing micro-autonomous aerial systems (MAAS) concepts are being explored for military and civilian applications. However, on the whole, the issues of control of MAAS are largely unexplored. Controllers designed using methods applicable to larger aircraft are unlikely to realize the agile flight potential of flexible wing MAAS airframes. In this paper, the authors use two Euler-Bernoulli beams connected to a rigid mass to model an aeroelastic wing MAAS. They employ Continuous Sensitivity Equation Methods to examine the sensitivity of the controlled state with respect to variation of the H_∞ control parameter, with the primary goal being to gain insight into the flexible dynamics of the system in order to exploit the flexibility for control purposes. Further, the authors examine functional gains in order to determine optimal sensor placement while taking advantage of the flexibility of the MAAS model.