Non-fragile switching tracking control for a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle based on polytopic LPV model

This article proposes a linear parameter varying (LPV) switching tracking control scheme for a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (FAHV). First, a polytopic LPV model is constructed to represent the complex nonlinear longitudinal model of the FAHV by using Jacobian linearization and tensor-product (T-P) model transformation approach. Second, for less conservative controller design purpose, the flight envelope is divided into four sub-regions and a non-fragile LPV controller is designed for each parameter sub-region. These non-fragile LPV controllers are then switched in order to guarantee the closed-loop FAHV system to be asymptotically stable and satisfy a specified performance criterion. The desired non-fragile LPV switching controller is found by solving a convex constraint problem which can be efficiently solved using available linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques, and robust stability analysis of the closed-loop FAHV system is verified based on multiple Lypapunov functions (MLFs). Finally, numerical simulations have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach.