Decentralized design for integrated flight/propulsion control of aircraft

A direct decentralized approach to the design of integrated flight/propulsion control (IFPC) systems is considered in order to reduce complexity and validation drawbacks of centralized designs. The imposed triangular decentralized structure on the IFPC controller allows for separate evaluation of the engine controller as well as for the evaluation of the achievable performance of the overall IFPC system. H_∞ techniques which require the solution to Riccati-like equations are used to develop the design method. This method is applied to an aircraft aero-propulsive model and the results indicate that the approach may be a vital alternative to other techniques appearing in the literature.