Symbolic control approach to aircraft taking off in wind shear

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for aircraft taking off control in wind shear, which is a challenging issue for an aircraft. Design/methodology/approach – Aircraft control in wind shear needs an anti-jamming controller. Symbolic control is an effective and adaptive method for complex dynamic system. In this paper, wind shear flight control laws are developed for the dynamics of a B-747 aircraft by using symbolic control. The problem of efficiently steering dynamical systems with disturbance by using symbolic control is considered, and theoretical analysis on the proposed approach is also conducted. The implementation of an altitude scheduling strategy with symbolic controller makes it possible for aircraft to escape serious wind shear. Findings – This work improved symbolic control algorithm so that it can be applied to aircraft control problem. A series of comparative experimental results with proportional-integral-derivative controller demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Practical implications – The symbolic control method developed in this paper can be easily applied to another aircraft control problems. Originality/value – An improved symbolic control method is proposed for solving aircraft taking off problem in wind shear.