Minimal order disturbance estimator design for aircraft load alleviation control

Kurzfassung

In this paper a novel approach to design linear disturbance estimator is presented. The linear approach relies on the idea of directly decoupling everything but the disturbance input from the estimate by using advanced nullspace computation techniques. The main advantage of the approach is that disturbance estimators of minimal order, using available and numerically reliable tools, can be designed. The approach is applied to a generic model of a business jet aircraft. The derived disturbance estimate is used in a control algorithm to reduce the wing bending moments on the aircraft in case of wind gusts. Both, the disturbance estimator together with the load alleviation controller are verified in a non-linear closed loop aircraft simulation model.