An Analysis of the Optimal Control Modification Method Applied to Flutter Suppression

Unlike basic Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC)l, Optimal Control Modification (OCM) has been shown to be a promising MRAC modification with robustness and analytical properties not present in other adaptive control methods. This paper presents an analysis of the OCM method, and how the asymptotic property of OCM is useful for analyzing and tuning the controller. We begin with a Lyapunov stability proof of an OCM controller having two adaptive gain terms, then the less conservative and easily analyzed OCM asymptotic property is presented. Two numerical examples are used to show how this property can accurately predict steady state stability and quantitative robustness in the presence of time delay, and relative to linear plant perturbations, and nominal Loop Transfer Recovery (LTR) tuning. The asymptotic property of the OCM controller is then used as an aid in tuning the controller applied to a large scale aeroservoelastic longitudinal aircraft model for flutter suppression. Control with OCM adaptive augmentation is shown to improve performance over that of the nominal non-adaptive controller when significant disparities exist between the controller/observer model and the true plant model.