Robust and Adaptive Control: With Aerospace Applications

Robust and Adaptive Control (second edition) shows readers how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications, the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-time dynamical systems.

The two-part text begins with robust and optimal linear control methods and moves on to a self-contained presentation of the design and analysis of model reference adaptive control for nonlinear uncertain dynamical systems. Features of the second edition include:

• sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability under output feedback observer-based loop-transfer recovery (OBLTR) with adaptive augmentation;
• OBLTR applications to aerospace systems;
• case studies that demonstrate the benefits of robust and adaptive control for piloted, autonomous and experimental aerial platforms;
• realistic examples and simulation data illustrating key featuresof the methods described; and
• problem solutions for instructors and MATLAB^® code provided electronically.

The theory and practical applications address real-life aerospace problems, being based on numerous transitions of control-theoretic results into operational systems and airborne vehicles drawn from the authors’ extensive professional experience with The Boeing Company. The systems covered are challenging—often open-loop unstable with uncertainties in their dynamics—and thus require both persistently reliable control and the ability to track commands either from a pilot or a guidance computer.

Readers should have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. The second edition contains a background summary of linear systems and control systems and an introduction to state observers and output feedback control, helping to make it self-contained.

Robust and Adaptive Control teaches senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value.

Dr. Eugene Lavretsky – is a Boeing Principal Senior Technical Fellow within the Boeing Research & Technology in Huntington Beach, CA. During his professional career at Boeing, Dr. Lavretsky has developed flight control methods, system identification tools and flight simulation technologies for piloted aircraft and autonomous aerial platforms. His research interests include robust and adaptive control, system identification and flight dynamics. He has written over 100 technical articles, a textbook and taught graduate control courses at the California Long Beach State University, Claremont Graduate University, California Institute of Technology, University of Missouri Science and Technology, and at the University of Southern California. Dr. Lavretsky is the recipient of the AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award (2009), the IEEE Control Systems Magazine Outstanding Paper Award (2011), the AACC Control Engineering Practice Award (2012), and the IEEE Control Systems Society Award for Technical Excellence in Aerospace Control (2021). Dr. Lavretsky is a Fellow of IEEE (2016), a Fellow of AIAA (2018), and a member of the National Academy of Engineering (2024).

Dr. Kevin A. Wise is a VP, Distinguished Senior Technical Fellow, Flight Controls, in The Boeing Company, is President and CEO of Innovative Control Technologies, LLC, and is a Chief Advisor at Kelda Drilling Controls in Norway.  He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1980, 82, and 87, respectively.  Since joining Boeing in 1982, he has developed vehicle management systems, flight control systems, and control system design tools and processes for advanced piloted and unpiloted aircraft and weapon systems.  Some programs include T-7A Redhawk, KC-46 Tanker boom, 777X, Dominator UAS, Phantom Eye Hydrogen Powered UAS, QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target, X-45 J-UCAS, X-36, SDB and JDAM, and HAVE SLICK. His research interests include intelligent autonomy and battle management, aircraft and missile dynamics and control, hypersonic GNC, robust adaptive control, optimal control, robustness theory, and intelligent drilling solutions.  He has authored more than 100 technical articles and seven book chapters; he has published a textbook titled Robust and Adaptive Control Theory, with Aerospace Examples; and he teaches control theory at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  Dr. Wise is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is the recipient of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Award (2018), IEEE Technical Excellence in Aerospace Control Award (2016), IFAC/AACC Control Engineering Practice Award (2007), and the AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award (2004).  He is an IEEE Fellow, and Fellow of the AIAA.