Knowledge-based control of a transport aircraft during approach and landing

Abstract

The research for this dissertation was undertaken by Emily Ann Glass in pursuit of a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Electrical Engineering. The objectives were first, to examine software architecture useful for knowledge-based control of aircraft flight, second, to compare several fuzzy control methodologies (ease of design, tuning, and performance) for control of aircraft wing flaps during approach and landing, and third, to determine guidelines for using fuzzy control for systems of medium complexity. This research is a portion of a larger project at Texas A&M University. The complete project consists of five interactive software modules: a simulation, a metacontroller, a graphical user interface (GUI), a blackboard (for communication between modules), and a flight-mode interpreter. These modules work together to form an integrated aircraft guidance system. The first two modules were the responsibility of Ms. Glass. The simulation is a piece-wise linear, longitudinal simulation of a Boeing 737-100, implemented in C. The intelligent controller, or meta-controller, forms an intermediate level of control between the pilot and the traditional flight control system. The meta-controller was implemented in Eiffel, an object-oriented language. The basic structure o f this metacontroller was designed and implemented to satisfy the first goal of this research. In line with the second and third goals of this research, a fuzzy flaps controller was implemented in full detail. This dissertation covers a description of the simulation, object-oriented design and implementation of the upper levels of the meta-controller, an overview of fuzzy control in relation to this research, design and implementation of the fuzzy controller and membership function classes, progression and results of the fuzzy flaps control problem, and some design guidelines for fuzzy control of systems of medium complexity. The results described in this dissertation show that there is utility in fuzzy control of aircraft systems and flight.