V2I9P21

Determining the Stability of PID Control System During Pitching of an Aircraft (B737) Using the Various Stability Criteria Through MATLAB

David Laud Amenyo Fiase^1*, Kwadwo Opoku Attah², Nathaniel Nelson³, Marcus Awuku⁴, Perry Opoku Agyeman⁵, Joseph Tetteh-Quaynor⁶, Freda Ocansey⁷

Abstract

Aircraft designers are learning more about aerodynamics producing larger and faster aircrafts since these forces acting of the control surfaces increases exponentially as aviation matures make the control force required by pilots manageable. Aircraft engineers design more complex systems for pilots to be able to manage these control forces A Boeing 747 heavy passenger aircraft when pitching uses the proportional Integral Differential (PID) control systems. Passengers and Flying officers with experience have noticed that whenever aircrafts starts pitching from a lower flight level to a higher flight level, due to change in external pressure on aircraft, it seem to make it start shaking or unstable until the start to cruise at new level. The aim at determining the stability of PID control system during pitching of an aircraft (B737) using the various stability criteria like Bodes, Nyquist, Routh-Huwitz and Nichols chart through MATLAB. The results proved that the aircraft was stable for all the criteria used and recommended that Fine-Tuning PID Parameters when further adjustments can improve response time, reduce overshoot, and enhance the aircraft’s handling qualities. Techniques such as Ziegler-Nichols tuning or model-based approaches can refine the gains for better performance, Robustness Testing can be further analysis conducted under varying flight conditions, such as turbulence, different loading scenarios, and actuator delays. Stability should remain intact under these disturbances, For Redundancy and Fault Tolerance, ensure the pitch control system has adequate fail-safes and redundancy mechanisms to handle component failures or sensor inaccuracies.

Keywords:

Proportional Integrated Derivative (PID); Bode Criterion, Nyquist Criterion, Nichol’s chart, Routh-Huwitz stability criteria