Nonlinear system finite-time output reachability for flight control given uncertain airspeed

This paper demonstrates stable level flight control given nonlinear dynamics in the presence of uncertainty in pitot tube airspeed measurements. It is first shown that a commanded cruise altitude can be reached in finite time by applying a recently-proposed finite-time reachability model. Then, the paper proposes a new dynamic decision making unit (DMU) to govern level flight in the presence of uncertain pitot tube readings. The DMU uses a Markov Decision Process to update the controls over a finite time-horizon, where MDP states are obtained from discretization of the output and MDP cost is proportional to the deviation from the desired output. A transition probability calculator learns MDP transition probabilities over time.