Further Application of Output Predictive Algorithmic Control to Terrain Following

Earlier work on the development of the predictive control technique Output Predictive Algorithmic Control (OPAC) keyed on the exceptional capability of the controller technique to provide precision tracking in very demanding situations, and it considered the preliminary application of the controller technique to the problem of terrain following for aircraft flight/trajectory control. This paper is an extension of that earlier work to bring in the multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) situation using more realistic aircraft models and more realistic terrain following trajectories. Aircraft following is a much larger systems problem involving sensor information, desired trajectory design, and many other systems problems, but this paper demonstrates that the predictive control technique, OPAC, performs very well in the one small but very important aspect of precision trajectory control.