Supervisory control for integrated power and thermal management of propulsion systems

A process for an aircraft comprising:

• providing a supervisory controller receiving one or more system objectives and constraints for mission segments of a complete aircraft mission received from an operator or a mission statement computer;
• receiving data output from at least one subsystem, the data output including a measurement of an aircraft physical system state;
• generating reference commands to coordinate local subsystem controllers to address one or more system objectives and constraints;
• sending computed reference commands to local subsystem controllers;
• providing a memory for storing program instructions;
• providing a processor for solving constrained optimization problems in response to changing data outputs from subsystems or changing system objectives and constraints;
• providing at least one local supervisory controller, operatively coupled to the memory, and in communication with the supervisory controller;
• receiving reference commands from a supervisory controller;
• and
• executing the reference commands received from the supervisory controller to operate the at least one subsystem.