NRA award under fcsr task order contract. Task order title: "robust composite adaptive control for piloted aircraft". This effort is for basic research that will focus on the development of…

NRA award under fcsr task order contract. Task order title: "robust composite adaptive control for piloted aircraft". This effort is for basic research that will focus on the development of theoretically justified and numerically efficient robust adaptive flight control design and analysis methods. Leveraging the contractor's existing flight proven adaptive control architectures, extensive experience in their design and analysis, and lessons learned, these technologies will be extended to improve, predict, and quantify overall system stability / robustness measures, with respect to unforeseen / adverse flight conditions, while explicitly accounting for constraints due to actuators and engine dynamics. Applicable documents/background: (a) NASA research announcement (NRA) in solicitation NNH07ZEA001N. (b) MIL-STD 1797 (USAF) entitled 'flying qualities of piloted vehicles'. (c) MIL-f-9490D entitled 'flight control systems - design, installation and test of piloted aircraft general specification' (d) federal aviation regulations (far): part 25 - airworthiness standards: transport category airplanes http://RGL.FAA.GOV/regulatory_and_guidance_library/rgfar.NSF/mainframe?openframeset description of task requirements: the contractor shall perform the following tasks: task 1: design methods the contractor shall develop adaptive control design methods for piloted aircraft that can accommodate significant unanticipated errors due to modeling errors, control failures, battle damage, and environmental disturbances. Specifically, the contractor shall conduct fundamental / formal design studies for a piloted aircraft operating under actuator constraints and with engine dynamics explicitly taken into account during the design phase. The contractor shall address the achievable dynamics that the system can attain under mutually agreed upon failures and adverse conditions by augmenting an existing baseline robust (gain-scheduled) flight controller. The contractor shall use composite (direct + indirect) adaptive model reference control and extend this to piloted aircraft by providing built-in design extensions and modifications to existing architecture. The contractor shall use flight control architectures to produce theoretically justified and numerically verifiable adaptive flight control design and analysis methods for piloted aircraft. These composite adaptive control design methodologies constitute the deliverable items under task 1. (deliverable 11) task 2: design extensions and modifications the contractor shall do design modifications to further improve and enhance system performance, stability, and robustness. The contractor shall leverage recent results related to the design of adaptive controllers for systems with nonlinear-in-control dynamics, operating under actuator constraints, and in the presence of notch filters or any other devices that are designed to prevent structural mode interactions. These design modifications and their analysis methods shall be produced using formal (lyapunov-based) methods. The contractor shall concentrate on formulation of theoretical conditions for closed-loop stability and predictable performance, in the presence of large aerodynamic uncertainties, actuator constraints, engine dynamics, and structural mode interaction. These research objectives shall directly support the development of verifiable adaptive flight control technology for piloted aircraft. The contractor shall deliver adaptive flight control design extensions and their analysis methods. (deliverable 12) task 3: stability and robustness analysis methods the contractor shall numerically quantify closed-loop transient characteristics and gain / time-delay margins on the government-provided aircraft simulation model (see GFI chart below). The contractor shall provide tuning design guidelines needed to ensure stable, predictable, and verifiable adaptive FL