Cruise Controller FLC refactored using PID

[T2Fat2Fly]

Cruise Controller FLC refactoring

The issue

The current pseudo-FLC (Flight Level Change) code estimates total aircraft thrust & drag, and tries to balance them using climb angle when within "flc_margin" speed: https://github.com/Boris-Barboris/AtmosphereAutopilot/blob/6d21fdbedcb51bf1f75c1b3c973a5bd2f755986b/AtmosphereAutopilot/Modules/CruiseController.cs#L313-L321 However, for aircrafts with low TWR (~0.2), the estimation fails and the flc code refuses to work, since (it thinks) it is impossible to climb when drag > thrust. This is an example when it fails. The aircraft was Squad stock craft "Gull" with thrust limited to 0.8. It was fine until it started wobbling around 5400m altitude and climbing steeply disregarding the set flc speed, which ultimately resulted in deep stall: flc_fail.webm

Also, the current code doesn't work for descents. It always descends at max_climb_angle, which is not efficient for both fuel efficiency (energy loss due to drags) and maneuverability (aircrafts become unstable at high speed).

Solution

Refactoring FLC using a PID loop. Several logic is changed (matching the real world FLC behavior):

1. FLC now moderates both ascent and descent. Aircraft pitches to hold airspeed setpoint rather than specific vertical speed.
2. Speed Control is no longer required to be enabled for FLC to function, it will work with manual throttle as well.
   1. This behavior enables pilot to control climb/descend rate using throttle - throttle up to increase climb rate / decrease descend rate, throttle down to decrease climb rate / increase descend rate.
   2. If Speed Control is activated during FLC, it forces max throttle on climb and cuts throttle on descend. Prograde Thrust Controller module is slightly altered to allow this behavior.
3. Removed "flc_margin", and added PID kP, kI, kD fields to the Cruise Flight Controller GUI. (The PID fields are always listed before the "pseudo_flc" button and I can't figure out why.)
4. Due to the major change in logic, FLC should be defaulted to off to avoid confusions. Alternative being making it as a seperate vertical mode, along with Altitude, vertical speed, FPA, just like in real life.

Result

Squad stock craft "Gull" is used for example.

Accelerate before climb / Decelerate before descend

If FLC is activated and airspeed setpoint is above current speed, it will level off to accelerate:

When airspeed reaches setpoint, it then starts to climb:

And vise versa for descend.

Pitch to maintain airspeed

Airspeed should be close to setpoint when stabilized.

The default PID parameters is tuned to my liking but could be much better. Right now it overshoots alot and takes a long time before reaching back to the setpoint.

Throttle to control pitch

If using manual throttle, it can be used to manipulate the ascend/descend process without changing autopilot modes and parameters. For example, throttle up a bit can make a descent shallower:

If Speed Control is activated, it will set to max thrust when climbing, and min thrust when descending. This behavior returns to normal when reaching relaxing altitude frame or disabling either FLC or Speed Control.

[T2Fat2Fly]

Test it with at least one very big craft please.

Sure! Let's test with the massive FAR stock craft "FAR SkyEye". It is a pain to fly by hand since its wings break off easily at 1.2G!

FYI, I used flart's Speed Unit Annex plugin for better speed information. This is my setting for the test videos.

All AA settings are default. And I changed the code setting AccumulatorClamp to 1.0 / KI.

Ascend test

Commanding an acceleration and ascending flight level change simultaneously:

test_ascend.webm

Due to the long acceleration process, the airspeeds overshot by 30 m/s. Then the plane established steady climb.

Due to the nature of FLC I made it excluded from the relaxing algorithm. At 9830m altitude the plane entered relaxing frame and FLC quits. The transition process is not very smooth but acceptable. Perhaps making FLC an seperate mode and allows altitude mode to be automatically activated when reaching target altitude (like IRL) would make it smoother.

For the rest of the process it seems the default PID value works good (not fine, but, good) since they are tweaked with flying these jumbos in mind!

Note that I used IAS as setpoint, which means the ground speed mps setpoint is constantly changing during the ascent, which should be to blamed for the slow convergence.

Descend test

Almost the same to the ascend:

test_descend.webm

It took 10 min for a jumbo jet (and even more IRL) to descend from 10000m to 1000m. You may see what I mean by fuel efficiency when using FLC.

[Boris-Barboris]

And I changed the code setting AccumulatorClamp to 1.0 / KI

And that is why it overshot. 1.0/KI would mean that integral part of the controller would never contribute a value larger than 1 degree to the controller's output. When the craft is on perfect FLC ascent trajectory, it's speed matches the setpoint exactly, proportional component is zero and ascent angle is provided fully by integral component. For such perfect ascent, integral part must be able to produce [-90;90] values. Hence my 90.0/KI proposal for the accumulator limit.

[T2Fat2Fly]

Hence my 90.0/KI proposal for the accumulator limit.

accumulator clamp = 90.0 / KI AccumulDerivClamp = 2

I did a quick test with these parameters and the overshoot becomes more severe after climbing is established. It now overshoots from above the setpoint due to over pitching. Also my default KI is set to 0.06 so 90 / KI is basically infinity...

I think these are the culprit for overshooting:

1. the Cruise Controller can't hold the commanded climb angle precisely. As seen in the video there are always differencies between commanded angle and the actual climb angle even when stable.
2. the aircraft can't react fast enough to the rapid change in commanded climb angle.

[Boris-Barboris]

That would mean we're not strictly improving the controller then. I'm a bit busy now, so I'll reply slowly, but don't get discouraged. Actual control parts do take long to invent, we just need to think in the background. It may well be that the problem was somewhere else entirely.

PIDs are rarely the best solution.

[T2Fat2Fly]

I'm a bit busy now, so I'll reply slowly, but don't get discouraged.

Not at all! You are already replying very fast from my point of view! 😉 Please take it easy and put time on tasks that really need them. Meanwhile I can optimize my code (and learn!) on my side.

PIDs are rarely the best solution.

Can't agree more with this. RL aircrafts use PID for almost every task that is carefully tuned for that specific task (and even for specific configuration e.g. weight, engine model, flaps, etc..) but you are making an autopilot that suits most viable crafts in KSP. I've learned a lot from you and your code (thanks!) and hopefully we can sort this issue out with a solution that is up to the standard of other parts of the plugin.