Research on the trajectory tracking method of aircraft towing systems based on nonlinear control

Abstract In this paper, for the towing problem of wheeled aircraft, an automatic control method is proposed based on the nonlinear control theory, which realizes the trajectory tracking of the aircraft by controlling the velocity of the towing point of the aircraft, so as to realize the aircraft’s outbound and inbound operations. Firstly, based on the nonholonomic constraint theory, the mathematical model of the aircraft towing system is established, and the kinematic relationship between the aircraft towing point and the aircraft is obtained. Then, a controller is designed based on the nonlinear control theory, and the stability analysis is carried out using the Lyapunov method to realize the trajectory tracking of the aircraft traction system. Finally, the effectiveness and accuracy of the control method are verified by the combination of MATLAB simulation analysis and scaled-down model experiment. The results show that the proposed control method can realize the trajectory control of the aircraft towing system.