Control Law Design for Aircraft Autopilot Based on Particle Swarm Optimization Method

In this paper, a parameter tuning method based on Particle Swarm Optimization which is used for optimizing the parameters of aircraft flight control system is proposed. To test the validity of this method, simulations on autopilot pitch flight control system are performed. Based on the simulink of Matlab, a model of the pitch flight control system of autopilot is build. Then a fitness function containing domain of time and frequency response of the system is defined, and the domain of time and frequency response is properly weighted according to the requirement of rapidity and stability. The particle swarm optimization method is used in the optimization of autopilot controllers so that automatic tuning of the autopilot controlling parameters can be achieved. Numerical simulations show that the algorithm is effective and has excellent performance, and it was tested valuable for engineering application.