Integral minimum variance-like control for pooled non-linear representations with application to an aircraft system

This paper presents an integral minimum variance-like controller design based upon a Constant Coefficient Pooled Nonlinear AutoRegressive Moving Average with eXogenous excitation (CCP-NARMAX) representation. The use of pooling techniques significantly enhances the NARMAX representation’s ability to accurately describe systems performing under various operating conditions such as aircraft systems, chemical processes, industrial systems and so on. The controller design introduces suitable modifications to account for the characteristics of the CCP-NARMAX representation. The control strategy is subsequently applied to a nonlinear aircraft system in order to obtain regulation of the pitch rate around a predetermined value. Comparisons with a conventional PID control design are also made under various operating conditions, including disturbances due to external input and turbulence.