Abstract: The control system and related control theory of morphing aircraft are introduced. The control system of morphing aircraft is analyzed. It is shown that the system consists of a shape control loop and a flight control loop. Advances in the mechanical structures and control approaches of morphing aircraft are discussed. The centralized mechanical morphing structure, the distributed mechanical morphing structure, and the control system structure are analyzed. It is proposed that the distributed components in a morphing structure should be connected through a bus network. Future work in the shape control and flight control of morphing aircraft is summarized, including the flight control of large-scale shape aircraft, cooperative control of large numbers of actuators under communication constraints.

Key words: morphing aircraft, shape control, flight control systems, distributed control, networked control