Advanced control design and its application to aerospace mechatronics

The aerospace mechatronics including satellites, spacecraft, and deep-space explorers already play a key role in commercial and military applications due to their significant contribution in several tasks such as surveillance, earth observation and communication. In a variety of aerospace-driven applications, there is increasing design on achieving high performance control. However, due to the effect of external disturbance, system uncertainties, or component failure, the conventional proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control scheme may lead to an unsatisfactory or inferior performance. To overcome such weaknesses, advanced control approaches are imperative and critical while maintaining desirable stability, safety, reliability, maintainability, survivability and increased performance. This is particularly important for aerospace mechatronics. The primary objective of this Special Collection is to provide a platform for scientists, engineers and practitioners to present their latest theoretical and technological advancements in the field of sophisticated/advanced control system design and its application to aerospace mechatronics.

After a rigorous review process, seven papers have been selected in this Special Collection. A brief summary of the accepted papers in each area is also given below.

The first paper ‘Model analysis for a continuum aircraft fuel tank inspection robot based on the Rzeppa universal joint’ by Guochen Niu, Jinkun Wang and Kailu Xu designed a continuum robot to assist aircraft crew in inspecting fuel tanks. The workload of fuel tank inspection was decreased with the efficiency of maintenance improved. This was achieved based on the Rzeppa universal joint. The simulation and prototype experiments were performed with the strong loading capacity of the continuum robot and the effectiveness of the kinematic model validated.

The second paper ‘Prescribed performance-based low-computational cost fuzzy control of a hypersonic vehicle using non-affine models’ by Xiangwei Bu and Yu Xiao investigated the control problem of a hypersonic vehicle with parametric uncertainties. A novel fuzzy control approach was presented. The altitude and the velocity tracking errors were guaranteed with desired transient, steady-state performance and low computation. Numerical simulation results were presented to verify the efficiency of the proposed approach.

The third paper ‘Attitude-constrained reorientation control for spacecraft based on extended state observer’ by Yu Cheng, Dong Ye and Zhaowei Sun investigated the spacecraft attitude reorientation control problem in the presence of attitude constraint, actuator saturation, parametric uncertainty and external disturbance. A novel backstepping controller was presented with an extended state observer included to estimate the lumped disturbance consisting of parametric uncertainty and external disturbance. Simulation results were presented to validate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed schemes.

The fourth paper ‘Modelling, attitude controller design, and flight experiments of a novel micro-ducted-fan aircraft’ by Wei Fan, Changle Xiang and Bin Xu presented an advanced attitude controller for a micro-ducted-fan aircraft subjected to strong state coupling and system perturbation. This was achieved using the H-infinity theory. The results of simulations and experiments were presented to verify the performance of the proposed attitude controller.

The fifth paper ‘Optimal sliding mode tracking control of spacecraft formation flying with limited data communication’ by Ruixia Liu, Ming Liu, Xibin Cao and Yuan Liu solved the optimal tracking control problem for spacecraft formation flying in the presence of external disturbances and signal quantization. A novel quantized sliding mode control strategy was developed with the closed-loop control system being asymptotically stable. A simulation example was presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed control design scheme.

The sixth paper ‘Friction compensation and observer-based adaptive sliding mode control of electromechanical actuator’ by Mingyue Zhang, Man Zhou, Hui Liu, Baiqiang Zhang, Yulian Zhang and Hairong Chu presented a model-based friction compensation control approach for the speed loop of electromechanical actuator system. The problems of nonlinear friction torque disturbance, model uncertainty and unknown disturbances were addressed. This was achieved by integrating the observer technique and the adaptive sliding mode control theory. Experimental testing was performed to validate the proposed method.

The seventh paper ‘Trajectory tracking control of two degrees-of-freedom helicopter based on Udwadia-Kalaba theory’ by Yinfei Zhu, Han Zhao, Hao Sun, Kang Huang and Yinghui Dong investigated the trajectory tracking control problem of a two degrees-of-freedom helicopter with holonomic constraints. The constraint force of the mechanical system without adding additional parameters such as Lagrange multipliers was addressed. Simulation results were presented to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the modified controller.