Attitude Control Research Of Aerial Refueling Boom

Nowadays, aerial refueling technology draws more attention of countries all over the world. Asan important branch of aerial refueling, the boom refueling is just in its infancy in our country.Therefore, research of boom refueling is an urgent need of national defense construction. In this paper,dynamic modeling analysis and research of attitude control of refueling boom is carried out.Being articulated with the tanker through a universal joint, the boom’s motion must be influencedby the tanker. Therefore, detailed analysis of the constraint between the boom and the tanker is donewhile modeling.The specific influence is obtained, and a relatively complete model of the refuelingboom system is established.In order to analyse the dynamic response characteristic of the boom system, an estimationmethod of the boom’s aerodynamic parameter is provided, and a model simulation is made. The resultshows that the boom is stable, low damping ratio, and some coupling between pitch motion and yawmotion exists, meanwhile, the boom has little influence on the tanker, and then reasonablesimplification is done to the previous model.In the aspect of the analysis of control method, decoupling control should be considered resultfrom the coupling characteristic of the system. At first, conventional small perturbation linearizationdisposal on the boom system model is used, meanwhile the system is decoupled and grouped, andthen optimal tracking control is designed and the stallout problem caused by too large aerodynamicangle of the rudder is discussed. Afterwards, feedback linearization is used, which can linearize thesystem in a wide range, based on which to conduct the decoupling control design. That ensures therudder won’t stall out when the boom takes a comparatively large angle motion, and pretty goodcontrol effect is obtained. At last, an atmospheric disturbance model is added to make simulation andverification.