Characteristic model-based generalized predictive control and its application to the parafoil and payload system

Generalized predictive control (GPC) has been applied in systems to improve the control performance during the last decades. The designing of predictive model is the essential and vital problem in GPC application. Using characteristic model (CM) as predictive model in GPC can simplify the modeling procedure and improve computing efficiency of GPC. The CM is a kind of simple and easy-to-use dynamic model that is equivalent with precise model. Moreover, the creation of CM requires less system information than the practical models. The GPC with CM as predictive model named characteristic model-based generalized predictive control (CMGPC) is proposed in this paper, and it is used in the trajectory tracking control for parafoil and payload system. Simulations and analysis prove that CMGPC is equivalent to traditional GPC and CMGPC is a more efficient way for trajectory tracking of parafoil and payload system compared with conventional proportional integral derivative (PID) method.