Control-oriented Aircraft Modelling and Analysis Framework for Educational Purposes

Today several modelling and control synthesis methods are available to construct accurate aircraft representations and a large portion of these tools are appropriate for educational use. It is extremely beneficial for students studying in related areas to be able to construct and evaluate such vehicle systems, since it allows them to gain experience with aircraft dynamics and control without requiring a great amount of resources. However, the connections between these methods are not necessarily straightforward for someone who has never taken part in creating such representations. To provide an aid in this process, widely researched and used methods are collected and assembled into a well-structured framework for modelling, analysis and control of conventional aircraft. The framework is complemented with additional options to model unconventional aspects, such as the flexibility of an airframe or the deformation of a morphing wing. The result is a broadly applicable modelling scheme, appropriate to be used for educational purposes. The goal of the paper is to present the main aspects of the framework through unconventional aircraft examples.