Control laws for implementing active flutter suppression are generally derived from linear aeroelastic models. In this paper, families of control laws for implementing an active flutter suppression system were initially designed using linearised aeroelastic models based on the doublet lattice method after ignoring the aerodynamic loads associated with relatively faster time scales. Using these preliminary sets of control laws and the nonlinear transonic small disturbance theory, near-optimum control laws were chosen in the transonic domain to maximally increase the flutter speed of a typical aircraft wing by at least 16% or more. Thus it is shown that it is feasible to systematically design near-optimal control laws for active flutter suppression using computational models in transonic flow. The doublet lattice method coupled with the zeroth-order matrix Padé approximant provided the fastest method for synthesising a large number of preliminary control laws. The methodology was successfully demonstrated by applying it to two benchmarking examples.

This paper presents an open framework, through which, conventional general purpose aerial munitions can be converted into smart munitions. The retrofit consists of a smart adaptation kit (SAK) having a dedicated Guidance and Control Module (GCM). The adaptation kit along with the GCM ensures that the SAK glide optimally towards the designated target. To reduce cost, the number of control surfaces of the SAK has been kept to a bare minimum, which resulted in an under actuated system. The methodology proposed utilises the theory of gain-scheduled control and leads to an efficient procedure for the design of the controllers, which accurately track reference trajectories defined in an inertial reference frame. The paper illustrates the application of this procedure to the design of stabilisation and tracking controller for the SAK. The design phase is summarised, and the performance of the resulting controllers is assessed in simulation using dynamic model of the vehicle. Simulation results show that apart from improved circular error probable (CEP) of hitting the target, munition ballistic range has also significantly increased with the proposed modification.