Abstract: This paper proposes an adaptive control method based on total energy for the formation rendezvous problem of the receiver and tanker aircraft in the air refueling scenario. This method transforms the altitude and velocity instructions into the relationship between kinetic and potential energy. Through the coordinated distribution of energy, the height and speed are controlled, and the speed loss and angle of attack in the process of rapid climbing are avoided, which effectively prevents the occurrence of stall phenomenon and improves the stability of the tracking process. To enhance the robustness of the system, fuzzy logic is introduced to adjust the key parameters of the control system in real time. The simulation results show that the designed controller achieves the formation rendezvous of the receiver and tanker aircraft, avoid the speed loss and excessive angle of attack, and have good system stability, which provides a stable and robust solution for the adaptive formation rendezvous of the receiver aircraft for aerial refueling.

Key words: Aerial refueling, Total energy, Fuzzy logic, Adaptive control, Formation rendezvous