Incremental MPC for morphing aircraft: A robust and computationally efficient optimal control approach

Compared with conventional aircrafts, the dynamics of morphing aircraft exhibit significant nonlinearity and high uncertainty posing substantial challenges to the controller design. This paper proposed an incremental model predictive control (IMPC) approach for a morphing aircraft with the varying wingspan and sweep angle. The proposed method, formulated as the constrained optimal control problems (OCPs), is robust to dynamic uncertainties and capable of handling input and state constraints such as mechanical limits and angle of attack. Firstly, we establish a nonlinear affine model of the morphing aircraft according to the aircraft’s dynamic model. Subsequently, a time-scale separation (TSS) method is introduced according to the aircraft’s characteristics, dividing the system into fast and slow subsystems. Each subsystem is approximated as an incremental system, reducing dependency on the nominal model. In addition, the constrained OCP is cast into a quadratic programing (QP) problem using the incremental model, resulting in a linear MPC. Finally, several simulations are performed to validate the effectiveness of the IMPC method, in terms of stability, robustness, and computational efficiency.