Prescribed-time control for hypersonic morphing vehicles with state error constraints and uncertainties

This paper focuses on the attitude control problem of hypersonic morphing vehicles (HMVs) with output state constraints and uncertainties in morphing phase. The main contribution of this work is not only realizing arbitrarily predefined settling time based on accelerated tracking rate but also ensuring smooth control performance under morphing effects and uncertainties. Firstly the control-oriented model is established based on the dynamic model of HMVs. Then, a prescribed-time disturbance observer (PTDO) is developed to enhance the robustness of flight control system based on radial basis function neural networks (RBFNN), allowing the lumped disturbances to be estimated within appointed time. Subsequently, based on tangent-type barrier Lyapunov function (TBLF) and prescribed-time convergence technique, the controller is designed via backstepping method, and the tracking errors of output states converge to the near origin within arbitrarily prescribed time without violating the preassigned constraints during tracking process. Finally, the closed-loop stability is ensured via Lyapunov synthesis, and numerical test results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. Simulation results show that superior performance is obtained in terms of both transient process and stabilization.