This paper proposes an incremental nonlinear control method for an aeroelastic system’s gust load alleviation and active flutter suppression. These two control objectives can be achieved without modifying the control architecture or the control parameters. The proposed method has guaranteed stability in the Lyapunov sense and also has robustness against external disturbances and model mismatches. The effectiveness of this control method is validated by wind tunnel tests of an active aeroelastic parametric wing apparatus, which is a typical wing section containing heave, pitch, flap, and spoiler degrees of freedom. Wind tunnel experiment results show that the proposed nonlinear incremental control can reduce the maximum gust loads by up to 46.7% and the root mean square of gust loads by up to 72.9%, while expanding the flutter margin by up to 15.9%.

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This paper presents the development and initial characterization of an active, para- metric wing section with aileron and spoiler control surfaces. This wing section is intended to replace the currently used passive wing section setup and facilitate research in active con- trol techniques of aeroelastic phenomena such as flutter, gust load alleviation, and limit cycle oscillations. Baseline capabilities of the passive setup such as a variable center of mass, pitch axis location and spring stiffnesses are retained, while control surfaces, sensors, a single-board computer, and a mechanism for adjustable aileron free play were includedin the new design. Various system identification tests, such as a ground vibration test, flutter and control reversal speed tests, the actuator frequency response and static aerodynamic interaction between spoiler and aileron, were performed to identify the characteristics of the wing section. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, gust load alleviation tests show the difference between open- and closed-loop gust response when the aileron and spoiler are controlled with PID control.@en

This paper proposes an incremental nonlinear control method for aeroelastic sys- tem gust load alleviation and active flutter suppression. These two control objectives can be achieved without modifying the control architecture or the control parameters. The proposed method has guaranteed stability in the Lyapunov sense and also has robustness against external disturbances and model mismatches. The effectiveness of this control method is validated by wind tunnel tests of an active aeroelastic parametric wing apparatus, which is a typical wing section containing heave, pitch, flap, and spoiler degrees of freedom. Wind tunnel experiment results show that the proposed nonlinear incremental control can reduce the maximum gust loads by up to 46.7% and the root mean square of gust loads by up to 72.9%, while expanding the flutter margin by up to 15.9%.@en