Design and verification of active disturbance rejection controller for an axisymmetric gliding aircraft

Purpose This paper aims to realize the high-precision guidance and control for an axisymmetric gliding aircraft based on the improved active disturbance rejection control (IADRC). Design/methodology/approach An integral chain state-space model with attitude angle as the control objective is established, and the three-channel state-space models are simplified to the second order systems with similar expressions. The comprehensive design method of IADRC is proposed based on the second order system, which uses same control parameters for three channels to reduce workload of parameter tuning. The proposed IADRC combines active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) and proportional integral derivative control to suppress the disturbance. Findings The control parameters are selected according to the comprehensive design method, and they are taken into the transfer function and six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear dynamic model for simulation verification. Furthermore, IADRC is checked by the Monte Carlo simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed IADRC has strong adaptability with biased parameters of the axisymmetric gliding aircraft. The guidance and control effect of IADRC is compared with that of other modern control methods, such as standard ADRC, optimal control and pole placement control. The simulation results show that the guidance and control effect of IADRC is better than that of other methods. Originality/value Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed IADRC is feasible for engineering application. The comprehensive design method of IADRC has excellent guidance and control performance.