Switched Adaptive Flight Control of UAV Carrier Subject to Transient Separation Disturbances

A switched adaptive flight control architecture is proposed for fixed-wing carrier-sub UAVs to handle abrupt mass and inertia variations, as well as parameter uncertainties induced by transient aerodynamic interference, during sequential deployment. The separation process is rigorously modeled as a switched linear system, and a combined direct and indirect adaptive control scheme featuring an online Recursive Least Squares (RLS) modification is designed to compensate for model uncertainties. Furthermore, a dwell-time admissible switching law is established by solving Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs), ensuring the stability of the switching process through theoretically guaranteed Lyapunov energy drops at switching instants. Numerical simulations verify that transient tracking error spikes are significantly suppressed, and high-frequency oscillations are effectively attenuated compared to baseline controllers.