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Three Axis Aircraft Autopilot Control Using Genetic Algorithms : An

Experimental Study

Conference Paper · April 2009

DOI: 10.1109/IADCC.2009.4809001 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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2009 IEEE International Advance Computing Conference (IACC 2009)
Patiala, India, 6-7 March 2009

Three Axis Aircraft Autopilot Control Using Genetic

Algorithms : An Experimental Study
Amit Manocha Abhishek Sharma
Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering
Haryana Engineering College, Jagadhri Bharati Vidya Peeth College of Engineering
Yamuna Nagar, Haryana, India New Delhi, India
er_manocha@rediffmail.com abhisharmaO85(gmail.com

Abstract- The behavior of an aircraft can be described with a set Pfth

of non-linear differential equations by assuming six degrees of
freedom (3 for linear motions and 3 for angular motions) about x,
y & z axis. All the aircrafts have a PID controller for Autopilot
control system for pitch, yaw and roll. The PID [6, 12] controllers
are associated with their PID gains which can either be tuned
manually or by optimized methods like genetic algorithms to getLotu.aI
better control and enhancement in the performance. Genetic
Algorithms (GAs) are the powerful tool in the field of global
optimization to various problems. Genetic algorithms are the
models of machine learning which are based on the process of
natural evolution. Here genetic algorithms are successfully
applied for three axis autopilot (Pitch, Roll and Yaw) control of
an aircraft using MATLAB simulation for tuning of PID
controller and thus optimized values of PID gains for the Figure (1) Degrees of freedom of an Aircraft
controller are derived. Further the autopilot system has been
validated using FlightGear software [1]. In this software the PID
gains evaluated using genetic algorithms have been fed as an longitudinal and lateral equations of motion of an aircraft can
input in the autopilot program for the Boeing 747-400 (the model be written as
used here for autopilot system is Boeing 747-400).

Keywords- Chromosomes; Genetic Algorithm (GA); i . 'I -L - D+ £ - ;. iT ±t.

Proportional Integral Controller (PID); Genes; Pitch; Roll; Yaw; |
hi ±(L; gtI± nT+(v)
Autopilot
0---,n Ctf i,'l.,'
- (I

I. INTRODUCTION 4A D
I
Modern flight dynamics is concerned with the provision of 0 0 L 0
safe controllable air vehicles which are easy to fly and capable '
of delivering an enhanced performance. As there is a pilot in -(- C r+oCtS(6rt±)
4ka4me D- -gcoS. - T
the cockpit, which flies an aircraft; however there can be a .
provision to control the aircraft dynamics with out the -tb (CDD+C 1+XC: tioT -,)
I -t&i -a
interventions of pilot, which is known as Autopilot [3, 4] and F
which can also flies an aircraft. The paper describes the CC 0
application of GA to tuning of three term parameters of PID -X4 AJL
controller and thereafter using those values as parameters for 0 1 0
the autopilot program which is fed into an aircraft as per - %S
LCDe XT l
%

requirements.
11. AIRCRAFT DYNAMICS ifl
There are four primary forces that act on an airplane in
flight: thrust, weight, drag and lift. It iS the interplay between
!
9 D
LI
these four forces that result in an airplane's motion [5]. An L O 0 U j
aircraft has six degrees of freedom as shown in figure (1). They (1)
are linear motions about x, y, z axes and angular motions about Longitudinal equations of motion of an aircraft
x, y, z axis [10]. Under certain assumptions for the

978-1-4244-2928-8/09/$25.00 ( 2009 IEEE 171

Authorized licensed use limited to: Haryana Engineering College. Downloaded on May 18, 2009 at 10:36 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 -90f1@S /Ye- flight path angle
L A 1- t X 0
=X1 jif W
0
-,P,.
0 6Cy- ,.,
0-pitch angle
AJ) F / - 0 M°t o t t1 v(D- roll angle
CD--coefficient
At = 0 I Z 0 S CL of lift
I
_
Z' a
01h I
- 9CN coefficient of drag
Cw coefficient of weight
L L
__!bi CM - coefficient of pitch moment
+[BCf~,
_4n -- ; +~
1
4n
J S ; ~For introducing Yaw control, a heading variable is added to
tp ^A=
A
if.

Po Si0''
JF b29 pj_C0
9Sb- Ar s
4 .-
4
0
A- IL_ - lateral equation for Yaw control.
1 taii U i Since the experiment here deals with autopilot for Boeing
-) V0tC Po Os 747-400. Therefore the values for Boeing aircraft are plugged.
2h' In 1 After plugging in the values for Boeing 747-400 aircraft and
I -CL Po, Q AS] simplifying the values wherever necessary the transfer
72nj 2 [A function for aircraft Pitch, Roll and Yaw are obtained.
ib V Sb. P".bC
Thus equation for pitch control is
(2) s = 1.312s - 0.3896
Lateral equations of motion for aircraft 6e(s) s3+0.70s2+2.41s+0.3896
(3)
Where,
a- Speed of sound (ft/sec) Thus equation for roll control is
b -Wing span (ft)
c- Wing chord (ft) = - 0.1732s2 - 0.03999s -0.155
Ixx- Moment of inertia about the x-axis (slugs-ft2) 6a(S) s +0.7387s3 +1.205s2 +0.4364s+0.155
Iyy -Moment of inertia about the y-axis (slugs-ft2)
Izz -Moment of inertia about the z-axis (slugs-ft2) (4)
L- Rolling moment (ft-lbs) Thus Equation for Yaw control is
m -Vehicle mass (slugs)
M-Mach number (dimensionless) M = - 0.051s2 -0.022s
M -Total moment (ft-lbs) 6r(S) s4+0.7387s3 +1.09s2 +0.4488s
Mx -Moment about the vehicle x-axis (ft-lbs) (5)
My Moment about the vehicle y-axis (ft-lbs)
Mz Moment about the vehicle z-axis (ft-lbs)
M-Pitching moment (ft-lbs) III. AUTOPILOT
N-Yawing moment (ft-lbs)
p- Roll rate (rad/sec) An autopilot [3, 4, 5] is a mechanical, electrical, or
q -Ptc rate(rad/sec) hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance
q -Ditch preepad/sic)
(
ps) )
q -Dynamw c pressure from a human being. The basic function of an autopilot is to
control the aircraft in flight on pitch and roll and yaw without
S -Swrface rareac(2) the intervention of pilots. They act as command and reference
T -Thrusteforce (fbs) controllers in parallel to pilot inputs. In all designs the pilot
input is assigned highest priority over autopilot inputs i.e. pilot
u -Velocity component along the x-axis (ft/sec) can always over-ride auto pilot commands.
v -Velocity component along the y-axis (ft/sec)
V -Aircraft velocity vector (ft/sec) IV. GENETic ALGORITHM
V-Velocity (ft/sec)
w -Velocity component along the z-axis (ft/sec) A genetic algorithm [2] is a robust optimization technique
Po= density of surrounding air based on natural selection. The basic goal of GAs is to
a-angle of attack optimize functions called fitness functions. GA-based
f- side slip angle approaches differ from conventional problem-solving methods
xi- heading angle in several ways. First, GAs work with a coding of the
6e~ elevator deflection parameter set rather than the parameters themselves. Second,
6a~ aileron deflection GAs search from a population of points rather than a single
6r~rudder deflection point. Third, GAs use payoff (objective function) information,

172d.J200 IEEE InternXation7al Adlvance Computing Conference (IACC 2009Y)

Authorized licensed use limited to: Haryana Engineering College. Downloaded on May 18, 2009 at 10:36 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
not other auxiliary knowledge. Finally, GAs use probabilistic TABLE 1. PARAMETERS VALUES FOR GENETiC ALGORITHMS
transition rules, not deterministic rules. These properties make GA Parameters Characteristics and values
GAs robust, powerful, and data-independent. Its basis in Population Size 150
natural selection allows a GA to employ a "survival of the Selection Function Roulette
fittest" strategy when searching for optima. The use of a
population of points helps the GA avoid converging to false Crossover Twopoint
peaks (local optima) in the search space. The following
sections describe GAs in more detail. Most of the information The PID gain values for Pitch control system are
presented here is based on KD= -19.14
* Chromosome: A simple GA requires the parameter KP= -21.42
set of the optimization problem to be encoded as a string KI= -16.53; Err (Error) = 0.0034
(binary, real, etc.). These strings are known as chromosomes.
They are manipulated by the GA in an attempt to obtain the The PID gain values for Roll control system are
string that represents the optimal solution to the problem. KD= -24.82
* Genes: A character or symbol in a GA chromosome Kp= -16.28
is called as a gene. Genes are the basic building blocks of the KI= -2.93; Err (Error) = 0.0063
solution and represent the properties which make one solution The PID gain values for Yaw control system are
different from the other.
KD= -25.06
* Allele: The value of a gene in a GA is called an KP= -20.41
allele, such as for eye color, the different possible 'settings' KI= -21.34; Err (Error) = 0.0089
(e.g., blue, brown, hazel etc.) are called alleles.
* Selection: A genetic operator used to select B. Flight Gear Simulation and results
individuals for reproduction.
The values of PID gains obtained are fed into the autopilot
* Crossover: A key operator used in the GA to create program of Boeing 747-400 in FlightGear software by which
new individuals by combining portions of two parent strings. we get the response as shown in fig (2) which indicates the
* Crossover probability: Probability of performing a blue line for pitch, green for roll and red for yaw and different
crossover operation, denoted by pc, i.e., the ratio of the views of flying aircraft are shown in fig (3) in autopilot mode,
number of offspring produced in each generation to the fig (4) shows the inside view of cockpit in autopilot mode and
population size. This value of pc is chosen generally in the fig (5) shows the aircraft on the runway.
range of 0.7 to 0.9. Optimized genetic algorlthm step response
* Mutation: An incremental change to a member of the 1,4
GA population.
* Mutation Probability: The probability of mutating 1.2 -
each gene in a GA chromosome, denoted by pm. This value is
chosen generally in the range of 0.01 to 0.03.

V. PROPOSED SYSTEM
To model the autopilot system and thus device an optimized
aircraft's Pitch, Roll and Yaw control system Matlab
simulation is used in which m- files are executed. These m- 0,6
files operate upon equation (3) for Pitch control system,
equation (4) for Roll control system and equation (5) for Yaw
control system. Upon working on the above equations and by 014
using genetic algorithms optimized for PID controller are
devised [7, 8, 9, 1 1].
0.2

A. MA4 TLAB M-file evaluation

For Genetic algorithm simulation, GA toolbox in
MATLAB is used and response of the two techniques used forA1 1 14 1 I

analysis is compared and values of different GA parameters Time (sec)

are taken as in TABLE I. Fig (2) Step Response of PID Controller.

2009 IEEE Internlationlal Advance Computing Conference (IACC 2009) :173

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 VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
As the paper introduce that genetic algorithms can be used
for optimized values of PID controller gains. Then optimized
values of gains are fed as an input to the autopilot program in
the FlightGear software. From the FlightGear software it is
clearly seen that an enhanced autopilot system is obtained
using genetic algorithms. Apart from using genetic algorithms
a neuro-genetic, fuzzy-genetic or hybrid system can be
designed, by which a more enhanced and pronounced
autopilot system can be obtained.

l ~~~ACKNOWLEDGMENT

L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~We
acknowledge the assistance of Professor Wg Cdr
Chopra, Professor Dr. A.K Sinha at BVCOE, New Delhi.
Ani
Fig (3) Chase view of aircraft (flying in autopilot mode)

I _ l ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~REFERENCES
|[1] B. L. Stevens and Franc L Lewis, "'Aircraft Control and Simulation,
| ~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[2] D. E. Goldberg, Genetic Algorithms is Search, Optimization, and
l ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Machine
Learning, Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.
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Donald McLean, Automatic Flight Control Systems, Prentice-Hall
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1990.
. .[4] J. H. Blakelock, Automatic Control of Aircraft and Missiles, John-Wiley
X _X1 _ 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sons-New
York, 1990.

z .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5
I = n Tlin Rosam, Airlalne FSlgh Dynmicad Auoai Fligt
Joh Controls-

l l ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Control AAGtucu
Design for Practical Applctos en3etclT Apf proach,
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Feldt, R., "Generating Diverse Software Versions with Genetic
Programming: An Experimental Study," Software, Volume 145, Issue 6
Fig. (4) inside view of the cockpit in autopilot mode IEEE Proceedings, Dec 1998, pp 228 -236.
[9] Kanury, S.; Song, Y. D., "Flight Management Of Multiple Aerial
lVehicles Using Genetic Algorithms," System Theory, 2006, SSST apos;
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_ | r~~~~~~~~~~~~~ymposium, 5-7 March 2006, pp 33 37o.
I 1l l l l l l lllllllllllll ~~~~~[10]Menon, P. P.; Kim, J.; Bates, D. G. and Postlethwaite, I., "Clearance of
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__ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[12]
T. S. Schei, "Automatic Tuning of PsID Controllers Based On Transfer

Fig (5) Chase view of aircraft on the runway

1174 2009 IEEE Internlationlal Advance Computing Conference (IACC 2009)

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