Discrete-time Flatness-based Controller Design using an Implicit Euler-discretization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to derive flat sampled-data models for continuous-time flat systems using implicit Euler-discretization, enabling flatness-based controller design demonstrated on a VTOL aircraft example.

Contribution

It presents a novel constructive approach for discretizing flat systems with implicit Euler, facilitating flatness-based control design from continuous to discrete time.

Findings

Successfully derived flat sampled-data models for flat systems.

Enabled flatness-based control design in discrete time.

Validated approach with a VTOL aircraft example.

Abstract

In this contribution, we present a constructive method to derive flat sampled-data models for continuous-time flat systems through an implicit Euler-discretization. We show how the sampled-data model can be used subsequently for a flatness-based controller design, and illustrate our results with the well-known planar VTOL aircraft example.