Model Predictive Control for Aircraft Load Alleviation: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

A major trend in the aviation industry is to equip transport aircraft with active control systems for load alleviation, implemented primarily to save airframe weight, for better fuel efficiency and environmental performance. These systems-hereafter called load alleviation system-adjust the applied control signals to reduce and balance loads on aircraft components such as wings while enforcing improved ride comfort as a secondary objective and thus are multi-objective. The control problem is challenging, as aircraft dynamics are in general nonlinear and constraints on inputs and other variables are present. Furthermore, information about upcoming external disturbances (e.g. gusts or maneuvers) are often available and should be used beneficially. This contribution outlines the aircraft load alleviation problem from a control point of view and discusses existing solutions. Furthermore, at the example of a model of a large transport aircraft we show feasibility and advantages of using model predictive control. Finally, we discuss the use of model predictive control for aircraft load alleviation and resulting and remaining challenges for predictive control as well as future trends with respect to load alleviation.