Motor neurons in Drosophila flight control: could b1 be the one?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitehead, Samuel; Shirangi, Troy; Cohen, Itai

Similar to balancing a stick on one's fingertip, flapping flight is inherently unstable; maintaining stability is a delicate balancing act made possible only by near-constant, often-subtle corrective actions. For fruit flies, such corrective responses need not only be robust, but also fast: the Drosophila flight control reflex has a response latency time of ~5 ms, ranking it among the fastest reflexes in the animal kingdom. How is such rapid, robust control implemented physiologically? Here we present an analysis of a putatively crucial component of the Drosophila flight control circuit: the b1 motor neuron. Specifically, we apply mechanical perturbations to freely-flying Drosophila and analyze the differences in kinematics patterns between flies with manipulated and un-manipulated b1 motor neurons. Ultimately, we hope to identify the functional role of b1 in flight stabilization, with the aim of linking it to previously-proposed, reduced-order models for reflexive control.

Robustness Analysis and Reliable Flight Regime Estimation of an Integrated Resilent Control System for a Transport Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shin, Jong-Yeob; Belcastro, Christine

2008-01-01

Formal robustness analysis of aircraft control upset prevention and recovery systems could play an important role in their validation and ultimate certification. As a part of the validation process, this paper describes an analysis method for determining a reliable flight regime in the flight envelope within which an integrated resilent control system can achieve the desired performance of tracking command signals and detecting additive faults in the presence of parameter uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. To calculate a reliable flight regime, a structured singular value analysis method is applied to analyze the closed-loop system over the entire flight envelope. To use the structured singular value analysis method, a linear fractional transform (LFT) model of a transport aircraft longitudinal dynamics is developed over the flight envelope by using a preliminary LFT modeling software tool developed at the NASA Langley Research Center, which utilizes a matrix-based computational approach. The developed LFT model can capture original nonlinear dynamics over the flight envelope with the ! block which contains key varying parameters: angle of attack and velocity, and real parameter uncertainty: aerodynamic coefficient uncertainty and moment of inertia uncertainty. Using the developed LFT model and a formal robustness analysis method, a reliable flight regime is calculated for a transport aircraft closed-loop system.

Analysis and Design of Launch Vehicle Flight Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wie, Bong; Du, Wei; Whorton, Mark

2008-01-01

This paper describes the fundamental principles of launch vehicle flight control analysis and design. In particular, the classical concept of "drift-minimum" and "load-minimum" control principles is re-examined and its performance and stability robustness with respect to modeling uncertainties and a gimbal angle constraint is discussed. It is shown that an additional feedback of angle-of-attack or lateral acceleration can significantly improve the overall performance and robustness, especially in the presence of unexpected large wind disturbance. Non-minimum-phase structural filtering of "unstably interacting" bending modes of large flexible launch vehicles is also shown to be effective and robust.

Robust Flight Path Determination for Mars Precision Landing Using Genetic Algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bayard, David S.; Kohen, Hamid

1997-01-01

This paper documents the application of genetic algorithms (GAs) to the problem of robust flight path determination for Mars precision landing. The robust flight path problem is defined here as the determination of the flight path which delivers a low-lift open-loop controlled vehicle to its desired final landing location while minimizing the effect of perturbations due to uncertainty in the atmospheric model and entry conditions. The genetic algorithm was capable of finding solutions which reduced the landing error from 111 km RMS radial (open-loop optimal) to 43 km RMS radial (optimized with respect to perturbations) using 200 hours of computation on an Ultra-SPARC workstation. Further reduction in the landing error is possible by going to closed-loop control which can utilize the GA optimized paths as nominal trajectories for linearization.

Space Launch System Implementation of Adaptive Augmenting Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Wall, John H.; Orr, Jeb S.

2014-01-01

Given the complex structural dynamics, challenging ascent performance requirements, and rigorous flight certification constraints owing to its manned capability, the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle requires a proven thrust vector control algorithm design with highly optimized parameters to robustly demonstrate stable and high performance flight. On its development path to preliminary design review (PDR), the stability of the SLS flight control system has been challenged by significant vehicle flexibility, aerodynamics, and sloshing propellant dynamics. While the design has been able to meet all robust stability criteria, it has done so with little excess margin. Through significant development work, an adaptive augmenting control (AAC) algorithm previously presented by Orr and VanZwieten, has been shown to extend the envelope of failures and flight anomalies for which the SLS control system can accommodate while maintaining a direct link to flight control stability criteria (e.g. gain & phase margin). In this paper, the work performed to mature the AAC algorithm as a baseline component of the SLS flight control system is presented. The progress to date has brought the algorithm design to the PDR level of maturity. The algorithm has been extended to augment the SLS digital 3-axis autopilot, including existing load-relief elements, and necessary steps for integration with the production flight software prototype have been implemented. Several updates to the adaptive algorithm to increase its performance, decrease its sensitivity to expected external commands, and safeguard against limitations in the digital implementation are discussed with illustrating results. Monte Carlo simulations and selected stressing case results are shown to demonstrate the algorithm's ability to increase the robustness of the integrated SLS flight control system.

Closed-Loop Evaluation of an Integrated Failure Identification and Fault Tolerant Control System for a Transport Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shin, Jong-Yeob; Belcastro, Christine; Khong, thuan

2006-01-01

Formal robustness analysis of aircraft control upset prevention and recovery systems could play an important role in their validation and ultimate certification. Such systems developed for failure detection, identification, and reconfiguration, as well as upset recovery, need to be evaluated over broad regions of the flight envelope or under extreme flight conditions, and should include various sources of uncertainty. To apply formal robustness analysis, formulation of linear fractional transformation (LFT) models of complex parameter-dependent systems is required, which represent system uncertainty due to parameter uncertainty and actuator faults. This paper describes a detailed LFT model formulation procedure from the nonlinear model of a transport aircraft by using a preliminary LFT modeling software tool developed at the NASA Langley Research Center, which utilizes a matrix-based computational approach. The closed-loop system is evaluated over the entire flight envelope based on the generated LFT model which can cover nonlinear dynamics. The robustness analysis results of the closed-loop fault tolerant control system of a transport aircraft are presented. A reliable flight envelope (safe flight regime) is also calculated from the robust performance analysis results, over which the closed-loop system can achieve the desired performance of command tracking and failure detection.

Flight Test of Composite Model Reference Adaptive Control (CMRAC) Augmentation Using NASA AirSTAR Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, Irene M.; Gadient, ROss; Lavretsky, Eugene

2011-01-01

This paper presents flight test results of a robust linear baseline controller with and without composite adaptive control augmentation. The flight testing was conducted using the NASA Generic Transport Model as part of the Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research system at NASA Langley Research Center.

Investigation of Air Transportation Technology at Princeton University, 1989-1990

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1990-01-01

The Air Transportation Technology Program at Princeton University proceeded along six avenues during the past year: microburst hazards to aircraft; machine-intelligent, fault tolerant flight control; computer aided heuristics for piloted flight; stochastic robustness for flight control systems; neural networks for flight control; and computer aided control system design. These topics are briefly discussed, and an annotated bibliography of publications that appeared between January 1989 and June 1990 is given.

Investigation of air transportation technology at Princeton University, 1990-1991

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1991-01-01

The Air Transportation Technology Program at Princeton University is a program that emphasizes graduate and undergraduate student research. The program proceeded along six avenues during the past year: microburst hazards to aircraft, intelligent failure tolerant control, computer-aided heuristics for piloted flight, stochastic robustness of flight control systems, neural networks for flight control, and computer-aided control system design.

Adaptive Augmenting Control Flight Characterization Experiment on an F/A-18

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Gilligan, Eric T.; Wall, John H.; Orr, Jeb S.; Miller, Christopher J.; Hanson, Curtis E.

2014-01-01

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Flight Mechanics and Analysis Division developed an Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) algorithm for launch vehicles that improves robustness and performance by adapting an otherwise welltuned classical control algorithm to unexpected environments or variations in vehicle dynamics. This AAC algorithm is currently part of the baseline design for the SLS Flight Control System (FCS), but prior to this series of research flights it was the only component of the autopilot design that had not been flight tested. The Space Launch System (SLS) flight software prototype, including the adaptive component, was recently tested on a piloted aircraft at Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) which has the capability to achieve a high level of dynamic similarity to a launch vehicle. Scenarios for the flight test campaign were designed specifically to evaluate the AAC algorithm to ensure that it is able to achieve the expected performance improvements with no adverse impacts in nominal or nearnominal scenarios. Having completed the recent series of flight characterization experiments on DFRC's F/A-18, the AAC algorithm's capability, robustness, and reproducibility, have been successfully demonstrated. Thus, the entire SLS control architecture has been successfully flight tested in a relevant environment. This has increased NASA's confidence that the autopilot design is ready to fly on the SLS Block I vehicle and will exceed the performance of previous architectures.

Preliminary assessment of the robustness of dynamic inversion based flight control laws

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snell, S. A.

1992-01-01

Dynamic-inversion-based flight control laws present an attractive alternative to conventional gain-scheduled designs for high angle-of-attack maneuvering, where nonlinearities dominate the dynamics. Dynamic inversion is easily applied to the aircraft dynamics requiring a knowledge of the nonlinear equations of motion alone, rather than an extensive set of linearizations. However, the robustness properties of the dynamic inversion are questionable especially when considering the uncertainties involved with the aerodynamic database during post-stall flight. This paper presents a simple analysis and some preliminary results of simulations with a perturbed database. It is shown that incorporating integrators into the control loops helps to improve the performance in the presence of these perturbations.

X-33 Ascent Flight Controller Design by Trajectory Linearization: A Singular Perturbational Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhu, J. Jim; Banker, Brad D.; Hall, Charles E.

2000-01-01

The flight control of X-33 poses a challenge to conventional gain-scheduled flight controllers due to its large attitude maneuvers from liftoff to orbit and reentry. In addition, a wide range of uncertainties in vehicle handling qualities and disturbances must be accommodated by the attitude control system. Nonlinear tracking and decoupling control by trajectory linearization can be viewed as the ideal gain-scheduling controller designed at every point on the flight trajectory. Therefore it provides robust stability and performance at all stages of flight without interpolation of controller gains and eliminates costly controller redesigns due to minor airframe alteration or mission reconfiguration. In this paper, a prototype trajectory linearization design for an X-33 ascent flight controller is presented along with 3-DOF and 6-DOF simulation results. It is noted that the 6-DOF results were obtained from the 3-DOF design with only a few hours of tuning, which demonstrates the inherent robustness of the design technique. It is this "plug-and-play" feature that is much needed by NASA for the development, test and routine operations of the RLV'S. Plans for further research are also presented, and refined 6-DOF simulation results will be presented in the final version of the paper.

Space Launch System Ascent Flight Control Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Orr, Jeb S.; Wall, John H.; Hall, Charles E.

2014-01-01

A robust and flexible autopilot architecture for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) family of launch vehicles is presented. As the SLS configurations represent a potentially significant increase in complexity and performance capability of the integrated flight vehicle, it was recognized early in the program that a new, generalized autopilot design should be formulated to fulfill the needs of this new space launch architecture. The present design concept is intended to leverage existing NASA and industry launch vehicle design experience and maintain the extensibility and modularity necessary to accommodate multiple vehicle configurations while relying on proven and flight-tested control design principles for large boost vehicles. The SLS flight control architecture combines a digital three-axis autopilot with traditional bending filters to support robust active or passive stabilization of the vehicle's bending and sloshing dynamics using optimally blended measurements from multiple rate gyros on the vehicle structure. The algorithm also relies on a pseudo-optimal control allocation scheme to maximize the performance capability of multiple vectored engines while accommodating throttling and engine failure contingencies in real time with negligible impact to stability characteristics. The architecture supports active in-flight load relief through the use of a nonlinear observer driven by acceleration measurements, and envelope expansion and robustness enhancement is obtained through the use of a multiplicative forward gain modulation law based upon a simple model reference adaptive control scheme.

Flight control application of new stability robustness bounds for linear uncertain systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yedavalli, Rama K.

1993-01-01

This paper addresses the issue of obtaining bounds on the real parameter perturbations of a linear state-space model for robust stability. Based on Kronecker algebra, new, easily computable sufficient bounds are derived that are much less conservative than the existing bounds since the technique is meant for only real parameter perturbations (in contrast to specializing complex variation case to real parameter case). The proposed theory is illustrated with application to several flight control examples.

Flight Control Design for an Autonomous Rotorcraft Using Pseudo-Sliding Mode Control and Waypoint Navigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mallory, Nicolas Joseph

The design of robust automated flight control systems for aircraft of varying size and complexity is a topic of continuing interest for both military and civilian industries. By merging the benefits of robustness from sliding mode control (SMC) with the familiarity and transparency of design tradeoff offered by frequency domain approaches, this thesis presents pseudo-sliding mode control as a viable option for designing automated flight control systems for complex six degree-of-freedom aircraft. The infinite frequency control switching of SMC is replaced, by necessity, with control inputs that are continuous in nature. An introduction to SMC theory is presented, followed by a detailed design of a pseudo-sliding mode control and automated flight control system for a six degree-of-freedom model of a Hughes OH6 helicopter. This model is then controlled through three different waypoint missions that demonstrate the stability of the system and the aircraft's ability to follow certain maneuvers despite time delays, large changes in model parameters and vehicle dynamics, actuator dynamics, sensor noise, and atmospheric disturbances.

Metabolomics Characterization of U.S. and Japanese F-15 and C-130 Flight Line Crews Exposed to Jet Fuel Volatile Organic Compounds and Aerosols

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-30

resulted in the identification of metabolite patterns indicative of flight line exposure when compared to non -flight line control subjects...virtually non -invasive sample collection, minimal sample processing, robust and stable analytical platform, with excellent analytical and biological...identification of metabolite patterns indicative of flight line exposure when compared to non -flight line control subjects. Regardless of fuel (JP-4 or

Visual control of flight speed in Drosophila melanogaster.

PubMed

Fry, Steven N; Rohrseitz, Nicola; Straw, Andrew D; Dickinson, Michael H

2009-04-01

Flight control in insects depends on self-induced image motion (optic flow), which the visual system must process to generate appropriate corrective steering maneuvers. Classic experiments in tethered insects applied rigorous system identification techniques for the analysis of turning reactions in the presence of rotating pattern stimuli delivered in open-loop. However, the functional relevance of these measurements for visual free-flight control remains equivocal due to the largely unknown effects of the highly constrained experimental conditions. To perform a systems analysis of the visual flight speed response under free-flight conditions, we implemented a 'one-parameter open-loop' paradigm using 'TrackFly' in a wind tunnel equipped with real-time tracking and virtual reality display technology. Upwind flying flies were stimulated with sine gratings of varying temporal and spatial frequencies, and the resulting speed responses were measured from the resulting flight speed reactions. To control flight speed, the visual system of the fruit fly extracts linear pattern velocity robustly over a broad range of spatio-temporal frequencies. The speed signal is used for a proportional control of flight speed within locomotor limits. The extraction of pattern velocity over a broad spatio-temporal frequency range may require more sophisticated motion processing mechanisms than those identified in flies so far. In Drosophila, the neuromotor pathways underlying flight speed control may be suitably explored by applying advanced genetic techniques, for which our data can serve as a baseline. Finally, the high-level control principles identified in the fly can be meaningfully transferred into a robotic context, such as for the robust and efficient control of autonomous flying micro air vehicles.

Developpement d'une plateforme de simulation et d'un pilote automatique - Application aux Cessna Citation X et Hawker 800XP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghazi, Georges

This report presents several methodologies for the design of tools intended to the analysis of the stability and the control of a business aircraft. At first, a generic flight dynamic model was developed to predict the behavior of the aircraft further to a movement on the control surfaces or further to any disturbance. For that purpose, different categories of winds were considered in the module of simulation to generate various scenarios and conclude about the efficiency of the autopilot. Besides being realistic, the flight model takes into account the variation of the mass parameters according to fuel consumption. A comparison with a simulator of the company CAE Inc. and certified level D allowed to validate this first stage with an acceptable success rate. Once the dynamics is validated, the next stage deals with the stability around a flight condition. For that purpose, a first static analysis is established to find the trim conditions inside the flight envelop. Then, two algorithms of linearization generate the state space models which approximate the decoupled dynamics (longitudinal and lateral) of the aircraft. Then to test the viability of the linear models, 1,500 comparisons with the nonlinear dynamics have been done with a 100% rate of success. The study of stability allowed to highlight the need of control systems to improve first the performances of the plane, then to control its different axes. A methodology based on a coupling between a modern control technique (LQR) and a genetic algorithm is presented. This methodology allowed to find optimal and successful controllers which satisfy a large number of specifications. Besides being successful, they have to be robust to uncertainties owed to the variation of mass. Thus, an analysis of robustness using the theory of the guardian maps was applied to uncertain dynamics. However, because of a too sensitive region of the flight envelop, some analyses are biased. Nevertheless, a validation with the nonlinear dynamics allowed to prove the robustness of the controllers over the entire flight envelope. Finally, the last stage of this project concerned the control laws for the autopilot. Once again, the proposed methodology, bases itself on the association of flight mechanic equations, control theory and a metaheuristic optimization method. Afterward, four detailed test scenarios are presented to illustrate the efficiency and the robustness of the entire autopilot.

Controller partitioning for integrated flight/propulsion control implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garg, Sanjay

1993-01-01

The notion of partitioning a centralized controller into a decentralized, hierarchical structure suitable for integrated flight/propulsion control (IFPC) implementation is discussed. A systematic procedure is developed for determining partitioned airframe and engine subsystem controllers (subcontrollers), with the desired interconnection structure, that approximate the closed-loop performance and robustness characteristics of a given centralized controller. The procedure is demonstrated by application to IFPC design for a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft in the landing approach to hover transition flight phase.

Intelligent flight control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1993-01-01

The capabilities of flight control systems can be enhanced by designing them to emulate functions of natural intelligence. Intelligent control functions fall in three categories. Declarative actions involve decision-making, providing models for system monitoring, goal planning, and system/scenario identification. Procedural actions concern skilled behavior and have parallels in guidance, navigation, and adaptation. Reflexive actions are spontaneous, inner-loop responses for control and estimation. Intelligent flight control systems learn knowledge of the aircraft and its mission and adapt to changes in the flight environment. Cognitive models form an efficient basis for integrating 'outer-loop/inner-loop' control functions and for developing robust parallel-processing algorithms.

A robust rotorcraft flight control system design methodology utilizing quantitative feedback theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gorder, Peter James

1993-01-01

Rotorcraft flight control systems present design challenges which often exceed those associated with fixed-wing aircraft. First, large variations in the response characteristics of the rotorcraft result from the wide range of airspeeds of typical operation (hover to over 100 kts). Second, the assumption of vehicle rigidity often employed in the design of fixed-wing flight control systems is rarely justified in rotorcraft where rotor degrees of freedom can have a significant impact on the system performance and stability. This research was intended to develop a methodology for the design of robust rotorcraft flight control systems. Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) was chosen as the basis for the investigation. Quantitative Feedback Theory is a technique which accounts for variability in the dynamic response of the controlled element in the design robust control systems. It was developed to address a Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) design problem, and utilizes two degrees of freedom to satisfy the design criteria. Two techniques were examined for extending the QFT MISO technique to the design of a Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) flight control system (FCS) for a UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter. In the first, a set of MISO systems, mathematically equivalent to the MIMO system, was determined. QFT was applied to each member of the set simultaneously. In the second, the same set of equivalent MISO systems were analyzed sequentially, with closed loop response information from each loop utilized in subsequent MISO designs. The results of each technique were compared, and the advantages of the second, termed Sequential Loop Closure, were clearly evident.

A flight-phase terrain following control strategy for stable and robust hopping of a one-legged robot under large terrain variations.

PubMed

Shemer, Natan; Degani, Amir

2017-08-04

This work demonstrates a simple, once per step, flight-control method for robots running on a planar unknown rough-terrain environment. The robot used to exemplify these control strategies is the ParkourBot, a spring loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP)-based robot. The SLIP model is widely used for the description of humans and animals running motion and has been the basis for many robots. A known control scheme for increasing robustness of the conservative, SLIP model is the swing leg retraction (SLR) method. Despite of the SLR's popularity, it is not intended to be used on the more realistic, non-conservative damped SLIP model. On the damped SLIP model, the SLR controller failed to provide adequate results, therefore, we have derived a new simple, flight-phase control method called polynomial energy insertion (PEI). The new PEI method is based on the dead-beat solution of the damped simplified instantaneous SLIP (iSLIP) model, which assumes an infinitely stiff spring. Unlike the SLR which, starting from apex, changes the leg angle monotonically during flight, the PEI requires the leg length (hence, energy insertion) to change monotonically throughout the flight phase. Interestingly, the leg angle remains nearly constant. In simulations and experiments, we have compared the newly developed PEI to the previous SLR method. We have found that since the SLR does not control the horizontal velocity, it looses its stability under rough terrain. The PEI method was able to control the horizontal velocity and height from ground and hence showed great improvement in robustness to rough terrain. Moreover, in both simulations and experiments the PEI methods showed an increase in the mean jumps to failure of more than 30% compared to SLR-based controllers.

Partitioning of centralized integrated flight/propulsion control design for decentralized implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garg, Sanjay

1993-01-01

The notion of partitioning a centralized controller into a decentralized, hierarchical structure suitable for integrated flight/propulsion control (IFPC) implementation is discussed. A systematic procedure is developed for determining partitioned airframe and engine subsystem controllers (subcontrollers), with the desired interconnection structure, that approximate the closed-loop performance and robustness characteristics of a given centralized controller. The procedure is demonstrated by application to IFPC design for a short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft in the landing-approach-to-hover-transition flight phase.

Wing Shaping and Gust Load Controls of Flexible Aircraft: An LPV Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hammerton, Jared R.; Su, Weihua; Zhu, Guoming; Swei, Sean Shan-Min

2018-01-01

In the proposed paper, the optimum wing shape of a highly flexible aircraft under varying flight conditions will be controlled by a linear parameter-varying approach. The optimum shape determined under multiple objectives, including flight performance, ride quality, and control effort, will be determined as well. This work is an extension of work done previously by the authors, and updates the existing optimization and utilizes the results to generate a robust flight controller.

L(sub 1) Adaptive Flight Control System: Flight Evaluation and Technology Transition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xargay, Enric; Hovakimyan, Naira; Dobrokhodov, Vladimir; Kaminer, Isaac; Gregory, Irene M.; Cao, Chengyu

2010-01-01

Certification of adaptive control technologies for both manned and unmanned aircraft represent a major challenge for current Verification and Validation techniques. A (missing) key step towards flight certification of adaptive flight control systems is the definition and development of analysis tools and methods to support Verification and Validation for nonlinear systems, similar to the procedures currently used for linear systems. In this paper, we describe and demonstrate the advantages of L(sub l) adaptive control architectures for closing some of the gaps in certification of adaptive flight control systems, which may facilitate the transition of adaptive control into military and commercial aerospace applications. As illustrative examples, we present the results of a piloted simulation evaluation on the NASA AirSTAR flight test vehicle, and results of an extensive flight test program conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School to demonstrate the advantages of L(sub l) adaptive control as a verifiable robust adaptive flight control system.

Space Launch System Implementation of Adaptive Augmenting Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wall, John H.; Orr, Jeb S.; VanZwieten, Tannen S.

2014-01-01

Given the complex structural dynamics, challenging ascent performance requirements, and rigorous flight certification constraints owing to its manned capability, the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle requires a proven thrust vector control algorithm design with highly optimized parameters to provide stable and high-performance flight. On its development path to Preliminary Design Review (PDR), the SLS flight control system has been challenged by significant vehicle flexibility, aerodynamics, and sloshing propellant. While the design has been able to meet all robust stability criteria, it has done so with little excess margin. Through significant development work, an Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) algorithm has been shown to extend the envelope of failures and flight anomalies the SLS control system can accommodate while maintaining a direct link to flight control stability criteria such as classical gain and phase margin. In this paper, the work performed to mature the AAC algorithm as a baseline component of the SLS flight control system is presented. The progress to date has brought the algorithm design to the PDR level of maturity. The algorithm has been extended to augment the full SLS digital 3-axis autopilot, including existing load-relief elements, and the necessary steps for integration with the production flight software prototype have been implemented. Several updates which have been made to the adaptive algorithm to increase its performance, decrease its sensitivity to expected external commands, and safeguard against limitations in the digital implementation are discussed with illustrating results. Monte Carlo simulations and selected stressing case results are also shown to demonstrate the algorithm's ability to increase the robustness of the integrated SLS flight control system.

In-Flight Suppression of an Unstable F/A-18 Structural Mode Using the Space Launch System Adaptive Augmenting Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Gilligan, Eric T.; Wall, John H.; Miller, Christopher J.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Orr, Jeb S.

2015-01-01

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Flight Control System (FCS) includes an Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) component which employs a multiplicative gain update law to enhance the performance and robustness of the baseline control system for extreme off-nominal scenarios. The SLS FCS algorithm including AAC has been flight tested utilizing a specially outfitted F/A-18 fighter jet in which the pitch axis control of the aircraft was performed by a Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) controller, SLS reference models, and the SLS flight software prototype. This paper describes test cases from the research flight campaign in which the fundamental F/A-18 airframe structural mode was identified using post-flight frequency-domain reconstruction, amplified to result in closed loop instability, and suppressed in-flight by the SLS adaptive control system.

Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dufrene, Warren R., Jr.

2004-01-01

This paper describes the development of an application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) control. The project was done as part of the requirements for a class in AI at NOVA Southeastearn University and a beginning project at NASA Wallops Flight Facility for a resilient, robust, and intelligent UAV flight control system. A method is outlined which allows a base level application for applying an Artificial Intelligence method, Fuzzy Logic, to aspects of Control Logic for UAV flight. One element of UAV flight, automated altitude hold, has been implemented and preliminary results displayed.

Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Uninhabitated Aerial Vehicle Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dufrene, Warren R., Jr.

2003-01-01

This paper describes the development of an application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) control. The project was done as part of the requirements for a class in AI at NOVA southeastern University and a beginning project at NASA Wallops Flight Facility for a resilient, robust, and intelligent UAV flight control system. A method is outlined which allows a base level application for applying an Artificial Intelligence method, Fuzzy Logic, to aspects of Control Logic for UAV flight. One element of UAV flight, automated altitude hold, has been implemented and preliminary results displayed.

Decentralized robust nonlinear model predictive controller for unmanned aerial systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia Garreton, Gonzalo A.

The nonlinear and unsteady nature of aircraft aerodynamics together with limited practical range of controls and state variables make the use of the linear control theory inadequate especially in the presence of external disturbances, such as wind. In the classical approach, aircraft are controlled by multiple inner and outer loops, designed separately and sequentially. For unmanned aerial systems in particular, control technology must evolve to a point where autonomy is extended to the entire mission flight envelope. This requires advanced controllers that have sufficient robustness, track complex trajectories, and use all the vehicles control capabilities at higher levels of accuracy. In this work, a robust nonlinear model predictive controller is designed to command and control an unmanned aerial system to track complex tight trajectories in the presence of internal and external perturbance. The Flight System developed in this work achieves the above performance by using: 1. A nonlinear guidance algorithm that enables the vehicle to follow an arbitrary trajectory shaped by moving points; 2. A formulation that embeds the guidance logic and trajectory information in the aircraft model, avoiding cross coupling and control degradation; 3. An artificial neural network, designed to adaptively estimate and provide aerodynamic and propulsive forces in real-time; and 4. A mixed sensitivity approach that enhances the robustness for a nonlinear model predictive controller overcoming the effect of un-modeled dynamics, external disturbances such as wind, and measurement additive perturbations, such as noise and biases. These elements have been integrated and tested in simulation and with previously stored flight test data and shown to be feasible.

Space Launch System Ascent Flight Control Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orr, Jeb S.; Wall, John H.; VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Hall, Charles E.

2014-01-01

A robust and flexible autopilot architecture for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) family of launch vehicles is presented. The SLS configurations represent a potentially significant increase in complexity and performance capability when compared with other manned launch vehicles. It was recognized early in the program that a new, generalized autopilot design should be formulated to fulfill the needs of this new space launch architecture. The present design concept is intended to leverage existing NASA and industry launch vehicle design experience and maintain the extensibility and modularity necessary to accommodate multiple vehicle configurations while relying on proven and flight-tested control design principles for large boost vehicles. The SLS flight control architecture combines a digital three-axis autopilot with traditional bending filters to support robust active or passive stabilization of the vehicle's bending and sloshing dynamics using optimally blended measurements from multiple rate gyros on the vehicle structure. The algorithm also relies on a pseudo-optimal control allocation scheme to maximize the performance capability of multiple vectored engines while accommodating throttling and engine failure contingencies in real time with negligible impact to stability characteristics. The architecture supports active in-flight disturbance compensation through the use of nonlinear observers driven by acceleration measurements. Envelope expansion and robustness enhancement is obtained through the use of a multiplicative forward gain modulation law based upon a simple model reference adaptive control scheme.

Nonlinear robust control of hypersonic aircrafts with interactions between flight dynamics and propulsion systems.

PubMed

Li, Zhaoying; Zhou, Wenjie; Liu, Hao

2016-09-01

This paper addresses the nonlinear robust tracking controller design problem for hypersonic vehicles. This problem is challenging due to strong coupling between the aerodynamics and the propulsion system, and the uncertainties involved in the vehicle dynamics including parametric uncertainties, unmodeled model uncertainties, and external disturbances. By utilizing the feedback linearization technique, a linear tracking error system is established with prescribed references. For the linear model, a robust controller is proposed based on the signal compensation theory to guarantee that the tracking error dynamics is robustly stable. Numerical simulation results are given to show the advantages of the proposed nonlinear robust control method, compared to the robust loop-shaping control approach. Copyright © 2016 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design Criteria for the Future of Flight Controls. Proceedings of the Flight Dynamics Laboratory Flying Qualities and Flight Control Symposium 2-5 March 1982.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-07-01

robustness of the closed-loop system as compared to state feedback. The observer theory of Luenberger specifies the conditions that must be satisfied for...No. ID-17SI-F-l, October 1963. 8. Rynaski, E. G. and Whitbeck, R. F.: "The Theory and Application of Linear Optimal Control," Calspan Report No. IH...pilots tend to control them open-loop. Frequencies much beyond 10 rad/sec are generally beyond pilots’ control capability. Control theory indicates a need

In-Flight Suppression of a Destabilized F/A-18 Structural Mode Using the Space Launch System Adaptive Augmenting Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wall, John H.; VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Gilligan, Eric T.; Miller, Christopher J.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Orr, Jeb S.

2015-01-01

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Flight Control System (FCS) includes an Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) component which employs a multiplicative gain update law to enhance the performance and robustness of the baseline control system for extreme off nominal scenarios. The SLS FCS algorithm including AAC has been flight tested utilizing a specially outfitted F/A-18 fighter jet in which the pitch axis control of the aircraft was performed by a Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) controller, SLS reference models, and the SLS flight software prototype. This paper describes test cases from the research flight campaign in which the fundamental F/A-18 airframe structural mode was identified using frequency-domain reconstruction of flight data, amplified to result in closed loop instability, and suppressed in-flight by the SLS adaptive control system.

Two Reconfigurable Flight-Control Design Methods: Robust Servomechanism and Control Allocation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burken, John J.; Lu, Ping; Wu, Zheng-Lu; Bahm, Cathy

2001-01-01

Two methods for control system reconfiguration have been investigated. The first method is a robust servomechanism control approach (optimal tracking problem) that is a generalization of the classical proportional-plus-integral control to multiple input-multiple output systems. The second method is a control-allocation approach based on a quadratic programming formulation. A globally convergent fixed-point iteration algorithm has been developed to make onboard implementation of this method feasible. These methods have been applied to reconfigurable entry flight control design for the X-33 vehicle. Examples presented demonstrate simultaneous tracking of angle-of-attack and roll angle commands during failures of the fight body flap actuator. Although simulations demonstrate success of the first method in most cases, the control-allocation method appears to provide uniformly better performance in all cases.

Rotorcraft flight control design using quantitative feedback theory and dynamic crossfeeds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Rendy P.

1995-01-01

A multi-input, multi-output controls design with robust crossfeeds is presented for a rotorcraft in near-hovering flight using quantitative feedback theory (QFT). Decoupling criteria are developed for dynamic crossfeed design and implementation. Frequency dependent performance metrics focusing on piloted flight are developed and tested on 23 flight configurations. The metrics show that the resulting design is superior to alternative control system designs using conventional fixed-gain crossfeeds and to feedback-only designs which rely on high gains to suppress undesired off-axis responses. The use of dynamic, robust crossfeeds prior to the QFT design reduces the magnitude of required feedback gain and results in performance that meets current handling qualities specifications relative to the decoupling of off-axis responses. The combined effect of the QFT feedback design following the implementation of low-order, dynamic crossfeed compensator successfully decouples ten of twelve off-axis channels. For the other two channels it was not possible to find a single, low-order crossfeed that was effective.

Fuzzy logic-based flight control system design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nho, Kyungmoon

The application of fuzzy logic to aircraft motion control is studied in this dissertation. The self-tuning fuzzy techniques are developed by changing input scaling factors to obtain a robust fuzzy controller over a wide range of operating conditions and nonlinearities for a nonlinear aircraft model. It is demonstrated that the properly adjusted input scaling factors can meet the required performance and robustness in a fuzzy controller. For a simple demonstration of the easy design and control capability of a fuzzy controller, a proportional-derivative (PD) fuzzy control system is compared to the conventional controller for a simple dynamical system. This thesis also describes the design principles and stability analysis of fuzzy control systems by considering the key features of a fuzzy control system including the fuzzification, rule-base and defuzzification. The wing-rock motion of slender delta wings, a linear aircraft model and the six degree of freedom nonlinear aircraft dynamics are considered to illustrate several self-tuning methods employing change in input scaling factors. Finally, this dissertation is concluded with numerical simulation of glide-slope capture in windshear demonstrating the robustness of the fuzzy logic based flight control system.

Flight Control Laws for NASA's Hyper-X Research Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, J.; Lallman, F.; McMinn, J. D.; Martin, J.; Pahle, J.; Stephenson, M.; Selmon, J.; Bose, D.

1999-01-01

The goal of the Hyper-X program is to demonstrate and validate technology for design and performance predictions of hypersonic aircraft with an airframe-integrated supersonic-combustion ramjet propulsion system. Accomplishing this goal requires flight demonstration of a hydrogen-fueled scramjet powered hypersonic aircraft. A key enabling technology for this flight demonstration is flight controls. Closed-loop flight control is required to enable a successful stage separation, to achieve and maintain the design condition during the engine test, and to provide a controlled descent. Before the contract award, NASA developed preliminary flight control laws for the Hyper-X to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed scramjet test sequence and descent trajectory. After the contract award, a Boeing/NASA partnership worked to develop the current control laws. This paper presents a description of the Hyper-X Research Vehicle control law architectures with performance and robustness analyses. Assessments of simulated flight trajectories and stability margin analyses demonstrate that these control laws meet the flight test requirements.

Robust Crossfeed Design for Hovering Rotorcraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Catapang, David R.

1993-01-01

Control law design for rotorcraft fly-by-wire systems normally attempts to decouple angular responses using fixed-gain crossfeeds. This approach can lead to poor decoupling over the frequency range of pilot inputs and increase the load on the feedback loops. In order to improve the decoupling performance, dynamic crossfeeds may be adopted. Moreover, because of the large changes that occur in rotorcraft dynamics due to small changes about the nominal design condition, especially for near-hovering flight, the crossfeed design must be 'robust'. A new low-order matching method is presented here to design robust crossfeed compensators for multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) systems. The technique identifies degrees-of-freedom that can be decoupled using crossfeeds, given an anticipated set of parameter variations for the range of flight conditions of concern. Cross-coupling is then reduced for degrees-of-freedom that can use crossfeed compensation by minimizing off-axis response magnitude average and variance. Results are presented for the analysis of pitch, roll, yaw and heave coupling of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in near-hovering flight. Robust crossfeeds are designed that show significant improvement in decoupling performance and robustness over nominal, single design point, compensators. The design method and results are presented in an easily used graphical format that lends significant physical insight to the design procedure. This plant pre-compensation technique is an appropriate preliminary step to the design of robust feedback control laws for rotorcraft.

Verification and Tuning of an Adaptive Controller for an Unmanned Air Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crespo, Luis G.; Matsutani, Megumi; Annaswamy, Anuradha M.

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on the analysis and tuning of a controller based on the Adaptive Control Technology for Safe Flight (ACTS) architecture. The ACTS architecture consists of a nominal, non-adaptive controller that provides satisfactory performance under nominal flying conditions, and an adaptive controller that provides robustness under off-nominal ones. A framework unifying control verification and gain tuning is used to make the controller s ability to satisfy the closed-loop requirements more robust to uncertainty. In this paper we tune the gains of both controllers using this approach. Some advantages and drawbacks of adaptation are identified by performing a global robustness assessment of both the adaptive controller and its non-adaptive counterpart. The analyses used to determine these characteristics are based on evaluating the degradation in closed-loop performance resulting from uncertainties having increasing levels of severity. The specific adverse conditions considered can be grouped into three categories: aerodynamic uncertainties, structural damage, and actuator failures. These failures include partial and total loss of control effectiveness, locked-in-place control surface deflections, and engine out conditions. The requirements considered are the peak structural loading, the ability of the controller to track pilot commands, the ability of the controller to keep the aircraft s state within the reliable flight envelope, and the handling/riding qualities of the aircraft. The nominal controller resulting from these tuning strategies was successfully validated using the NASA GTM Flight Test Vehicle.

A Robust H ∞ Controller for an UAV Flight Control System.

PubMed

López, J; Dormido, R; Dormido, S; Gómez, J P

2015-01-01

The objective of this paper is the implementation and validation of a robust H ∞ controller for an UAV to track all types of manoeuvres in the presence of noisy environment. A robust inner-outer loop strategy is implemented. To design the H ∞ robust controller in the inner loop, H ∞ control methodology is used. The two controllers that conform the outer loop are designed using the H ∞ Loop Shaping technique. The reference vector used in the control architecture formed by vertical velocity, true airspeed, and heading angle, suggests a nontraditional way to pilot the aircraft. The simulation results show that the proposed control scheme works well despite the presence of noise and uncertainties, so the control system satisfies the requirements.

The use of singular value gradients and optimization techniques to design robust controllers for multiloop systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newsom, J. R.; Mukhopadhyay, V.

1983-01-01

A method for designing robust feedback controllers for multiloop systems is presented. Robustness is characterized in terms of the minimum singular value of the system return difference matrix at the plant input. Analytical gradients of the singular values with respect to design variables in the controller are derived. A cumulative measure of the singular values and their gradients with respect to the design variables is used with a numerical optimization technique to increase the system's robustness. Both unconstrained and constrained optimization techniques are evaluated. Numerical results are presented for a two-input/two-output drone flight control system.

The use of singular value gradients and optimization techniques to design robust controllers for multiloop systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newsom, J. R.; Mukhopadhyay, V.

1983-01-01

A method for designing robust feedback controllers for multiloop systems is presented. Robustness is characterized in terms of the minimum singular value of the system return difference matrix at the plant input. Analytical gradients of the singular values with respect to design variables in the controller are derived. A cumulative measure of the singular values and their gradients with respect to the design variables is used with a numerical optimization technique to increase the system's robustness. Both unconstrained and constrained optimization techniques are evaluated. Numerical results are presented for a two output drone flight control system.

Matlab as a robust control design tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, Irene M.

1994-01-01

This presentation introduces Matlab as a tool used in flight control research. The example used to illustrate some of the capabilities of this software is a robust controller designed for a single stage to orbit air breathing vehicles's ascent to orbit. The global requirements of the controller are to stabilize the vehicle and follow a trajectory in the presence of atmospheric disturbances and strong dynamic coupling between airframe and propulsion.

Designing for Damage: Robust Flight Control Design using Sliding Mode Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vetter, T. K.; Wells, S. R.; Hess, Ronald A.; Bacon, Barton (Technical Monitor); Davidson, John (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

A brief review of sliding model control is undertaken, with particular emphasis upon the effects of neglected parasitic dynamics. Sliding model control design is interpreted in the frequency domain. The inclusion of asymptotic observers and control 'hedging' is shown to reduce the effects of neglected parasitic dynamics. An investigation into the application of observer-based sliding mode control to the robust longitudinal control of a highly unstable is described. The sliding mode controller is shown to exhibit stability and performance robustness superior to that of a classical loop-shaped design when significant changes in vehicle and actuator dynamics are employed to model airframe damage.

A Robust H ∞ Controller for an UAV Flight Control System

PubMed Central

López, J.

2015-01-01

The objective of this paper is the implementation and validation of a robust H ∞ controller for an UAV to track all types of manoeuvres in the presence of noisy environment. A robust inner-outer loop strategy is implemented. To design the H ∞ robust controller in the inner loop, H ∞ control methodology is used. The two controllers that conform the outer loop are designed using the H ∞ Loop Shaping technique. The reference vector used in the control architecture formed by vertical velocity, true airspeed, and heading angle, suggests a nontraditional way to pilot the aircraft. The simulation results show that the proposed control scheme works well despite the presence of noise and uncertainties, so the control system satisfies the requirements. PMID:26221622

Investigation of air transportation technology at Princeton University, 1991-1992

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1993-01-01

The Air Transportation Research Program at Princeton University proceeded along six avenues during the past year: (1) intelligent flight control; (2) computer-aided control system design; (3) neural networks for flight control; (4) stochastic robustness of flight control systems; (5) microburst hazards to aircraft; and (6) fundamental dynamics of atmospheric flight. This research has resulted in a number of publications, including archival papers and conference papers. An annotated bibliography of publications that appeared between June 1991 and June 1992 appears at the end of this report. The research that these papers describe was supported in whole or in part by the Joint University Program, including work that was completed prior to the reporting period.

Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Frank H. (Technical Monitor); Dufrene, Warren R., Jr.

2003-01-01

This paper describes the development of an application of Artificial Intelligence for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) control. The project was done as part of the requirements for a class in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Nova southeastern University and as an adjunct to a project at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility for a resilient, robust, and intelligent UAV flight control system. A method is outlined which allows a base level application for applying an AI method, Fuzzy Logic, to aspects of Control Logic for UAV flight. One element of UAV flight, automated altitude hold, has been implemented and preliminary results displayed. A low cost approach was taken using freeware, gnu, software, and demo programs. The focus of this research has been to outline some of the AI techniques used for UAV flight control and discuss some of the tools used to apply AI techniques. The intent is to succeed with the implementation of applying AI techniques to actually control different aspects of the flight of an UAV.

Multi-Agent Flight Simulation with Robust Situation Generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Eric N.; Hansman, R. John, Jr.

1994-01-01

A robust situation generation architecture has been developed that generates multi-agent situations for human subjects. An implementation of this architecture was developed to support flight simulation tests of air transport cockpit systems. This system maneuvers pseudo-aircraft relative to the human subject's aircraft, generating specific situations for the subject to respond to. These pseudo-aircraft maneuver within reasonable performance constraints, interact in a realistic manner, and make pre-recorded voice radio communications. Use of this system minimizes the need for human experimenters to control the pseudo-agents and provides consistent interactions between the subject and the pseudo-agents. The achieved robustness of this system to typical variations in the subject's flight path was explored. It was found to successfully generate specific situations within the performance limitations of the subject-aircraft, pseudo-aircraft, and the script used.

Pilot-in-the-Loop Analysis of Propulsive-Only Flight Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chou, Hwei-Lan; Biezad, Daniel J.

1996-01-01

Longitudinal control system architectures are presented which directly couple flight stick motions to throttle commands for a multi-engine aircraft. This coupling enables positive attitude control with complete failure of the flight control system. The architectures chosen vary from simple feedback gains to classical lead-lag compensators with and without prefilters. Each architecture is reviewed for its appropriateness for piloted flight. The control systems are then analyzed with pilot-in-the-loop metrics related to bandwidth required for landing. Results indicate that current and proposed bandwidth requirements should be modified for throttles only flight control. Pilot ratings consistently showed better ratings than predicted by analysis. Recommendations are made for more robust design and implementation. The use of Quantitative Feedback Theory for compensator design is discussed. Although simple and effective augmented control can be achieved in a wide variety of failed configurations, a few configuration characteristics are dominant for pilot-in-the-loop control. These characteristics will be tested in a simulator study involving failed flight controls for a multi-engine aircraft.

Restructurable Controls

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Montoya, R. J. (Compiler); Howell, W. E. (Compiler); Bundick, W. T. (Compiler); Ostroff, A. J. (Compiler); Hueschen, R. M. (Compiler); Belcastro, C. M. (Compiler)

1983-01-01

Restructurable control system theory, robust reconfiguration for high reliability and survivability for advanced aircraft, restructurable controls problem definition and research, experimentation, system identification methods applied to aircraft, a self-repairing digital flight control system, and state-of-the-art theory application are addressed.

Structure Computation of Quiet Spike[Trademark] Flight-Test Data During Envelope Expansion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kukreja, Sunil L.

2008-01-01

System identification or mathematical modeling is used in the aerospace community for development of simulation models for robust control law design. These models are often described as linear time-invariant processes. Nevertheless, it is well known that the underlying process is often nonlinear. The reason for using a linear approach has been due to the lack of a proper set of tools for the identification of nonlinear systems. Over the past several decades, the controls and biomedical communities have made great advances in developing tools for the identification of nonlinear systems. These approaches are robust and readily applicable to aerospace systems. In this paper, we show the application of one such nonlinear system identification technique, structure detection, for the analysis of F-15B Quiet Spike(TradeMark) aeroservoelastic flight-test data. Structure detection is concerned with the selection of a subset of candidate terms that best describe the observed output. This is a necessary procedure to compute an efficient system description that may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. Structure computation as a tool for black-box modeling may be of critical importance for the development of robust parsimonious models for the flight-test community. Moreover, this approach may lead to efficient strategies for rapid envelope expansion, which may save significant development time and costs. The objectives of this study are to demonstrate via analysis of F-15B Quiet Spike aeroservoelastic flight-test data for several flight conditions that 1) linear models are inefficient for modeling aeroservoelastic data, 2) nonlinear identification provides a parsimonious model description while providing a high percent fit for cross-validated data, and 3) the model structure and parameters vary as the flight condition is altered.

Robust nonlinear control of vectored thrust aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doyle, John C.; Murray, Richard; Morris, John

1993-01-01

An interdisciplinary program in robust control for nonlinear systems with applications to a variety of engineering problems is outlined. Major emphasis will be placed on flight control, with both experimental and analytical studies. This program builds on recent new results in control theory for stability, stabilization, robust stability, robust performance, synthesis, and model reduction in a unified framework using Linear Fractional Transformations (LFT's), Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI's), and the structured singular value micron. Most of these new advances have been accomplished by the Caltech controls group independently or in collaboration with researchers in other institutions. These recent results offer a new and remarkably unified framework for all aspects of robust control, but what is particularly important for this program is that they also have important implications for system identification and control of nonlinear systems. This combines well with Caltech's expertise in nonlinear control theory, both in geometric methods and methods for systems with constraints and saturations.

Inspiration for wing design: how forelimb specialization enables active flight in modern vertebrates

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Harnessing flight strategies refined by millions of years of evolution can help expedite the design of more efficient, manoeuvrable and robust flying robots. This review synthesizes recent advances and highlights remaining gaps in our understanding of how bird and bat wing adaptations enable effective flight. Included in this discussion is an evaluation of how current robotic analogues measure up to their biological sources of inspiration. Studies of vertebrate wings have revealed skeletal systems well suited for enduring the loads required during flight, but the mechanisms that drive coordinated motions between bones and connected integuments remain ill-described. Similarly, vertebrate flight muscles have adapted to sustain increased wing loading, but a lack of in vivo studies limits our understanding of specific muscular functions. Forelimb adaptations diverge at the integument level, but both bird feathers and bat membranes yield aerodynamic surfaces with a level of robustness unparalleled by engineered wings. These morphological adaptations enable a diverse range of kinematics tuned for different flight speeds and manoeuvres. By integrating vertebrate flight specializations—particularly those that enable greater robustness and adaptability—into the design and control of robotic wings, engineers can begin narrowing the wide margin that currently exists between flying robots and vertebrates. In turn, these robotic wings can help biologists create experiments that would be impossible in vivo. PMID:28592663

High-Alpha Research Vehicle Lateral-Directional Control Law Description, Analyses, and Simulation Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, John B.; Murphy, Patrick C.; Lallman, Frederick J.; Hoffler, Keith D.; Bacon, Barton J.

1998-01-01

This report contains a description of a lateral-directional control law designed for the NASA High-Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV). The HARV is a F/A-18 aircraft modified to include a research flight computer, spin chute, and thrust-vectoring in the pitch and yaw axes. Two separate design tools, CRAFT and Pseudo Controls, were integrated to synthesize the lateral-directional control law. This report contains a description of the lateral-directional control law, analyses, and nonlinear simulation (batch and piloted) results. Linear analysis results include closed-loop eigenvalues, stability margins, robustness to changes in various plant parameters, and servo-elastic frequency responses. Step time responses from nonlinear batch simulation are presented and compared to design guidelines. Piloted simulation task scenarios, task guidelines, and pilot subjective ratings for the various maneuvers are discussed. Linear analysis shows that the control law meets the stability margin guidelines and is robust to stability and control parameter changes. Nonlinear batch simulation analysis shows the control law exhibits good performance and meets most of the design guidelines over the entire range of angle-of-attack. This control law (designated NASA-1A) was flight tested during the Summer of 1994 at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

Flight Test Comparison of Different Adaptive Augmentations for Fault Tolerant Control Laws for a Modified F-15 Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burken, John J.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Lee, James A.; Kaneshige, John T.

2009-01-01

This report describes the improvements and enhancements to a neural network based approach for directly adapting to aerodynamic changes resulting from damage or failures. This research is a follow-on effort to flight tests performed on the NASA F-15 aircraft as part of the Intelligent Flight Control System research effort. Previous flight test results demonstrated the potential for performance improvement under destabilizing damage conditions. Little or no improvement was provided under simulated control surface failures, however, and the adaptive system was prone to pilot-induced oscillations. An improved controller was designed to reduce the occurrence of pilot-induced oscillations and increase robustness to failures in general. This report presents an analysis of the neural networks used in the previous flight test, the improved adaptive controller, and the baseline case with no adaptation. Flight test results demonstrate significant improvement in performance by using the new adaptive controller compared with the previous adaptive system and the baseline system for control surface failures.

F-15B Quiet Spike(TradeMark) Aeroservoelastic Flight-Test Data Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kukreja, Sunil L.

2007-01-01

System identification is utilized in the aerospace community for development of simulation models for robust control law design. These models are often described as linear, time-invariant processes and assumed to be uniform throughout the flight envelope. Nevertheless, it is well known that the underlying process is inherently nonlinear. Over the past several decades the controls and biomedical communities have made great advances in developing tools for the identification of nonlin ear systems. In this report, we show the application of one such nonlinear system identification technique, structure detection, for the an alysis of Quiet Spike(TradeMark)(Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Savannah, Georgia) aeroservoelastic flight-test data. Structure detectio n is concerned with the selection of a subset of candidate terms that best describe the observed output. Structure computation as a tool fo r black-box modeling may be of critical importance for the development of robust, parsimonious models for the flight-test community. The ob jectives of this study are to demonstrate via analysis of Quiet Spike(TradeMark) aeroservoelastic flight-test data for several flight conditions that: linear models are inefficient for modelling aeroservoelast ic data, nonlinear identification provides a parsimonious model description whilst providing a high percent fit for cross-validated data an d the model structure and parameters vary as the flight condition is altered.

Introduction to Robust Multivariable Control

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-02-01

AX DAVIS, Assistant for Research and Technology Flight Control Division Flight Dynamics Laboratory "If your address has changed, if you wish to be...particular chapter is given at the end of each chapter. It is needless to say that there are numerour other - publications in this area of controls research ...tco in this Area of research comprehensively in a single report. Finally, even though most of the material in this report comes from publications of W

Robust Modal Filtering and Control of the X-56A Model with Simulated Fiber Optic Sensor Failures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suh, Peter M.; Chin, Alexander W.; Marvis, Dimitri N.

2014-01-01

The X-56A aircraft is a remotely-piloted aircraft with flutter modes intentionally designed into the flight envelope. The X-56A program must demonstrate flight control while suppressing all unstable modes. A previous X-56A model study demonstrated a distributed-sensing-based active shape and active flutter suppression controller. The controller relies on an estimator which is sensitive to bias. This estimator is improved herein, and a real-time robust estimator is derived and demonstrated on 1530 fiber optic sensors. It is shown in simulation that the estimator can simultaneously reject 230 worst-case fiber optic sensor failures automatically. These sensor failures include locations with high leverage (or importance). To reduce the impact of leverage outliers, concentration based on a Mahalanobis trim criterion is introduced. A redescending M-estimator with Tukey bisquare weights is used to improve location and dispersion estimates within each concentration step in the presence of asymmetry (or leverage). A dynamic simulation is used to compare the concentrated robust estimator to a state-of-the-art real-time robust multivariate estimator. The estimators support a previously-derived mu-optimal shape controller. It is found that during the failure scenario, the concentrated modal estimator keeps the system stable.

Robust Modal Filtering and Control of the X-56A Model with Simulated Fiber Optic Sensor Failures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suh, Peter M.; Chin, Alexander W.; Mavris, Dimitri N.

2016-01-01

The X-56A aircraft is a remotely-piloted aircraft with flutter modes intentionally designed into the flight envelope. The X-56A program must demonstrate flight control while suppressing all unstable modes. A previous X-56A model study demonstrated a distributed-sensing-based active shape and active flutter suppression controller. The controller relies on an estimator which is sensitive to bias. This estimator is improved herein, and a real-time robust estimator is derived and demonstrated on 1530 fiber optic sensors. It is shown in simulation that the estimator can simultaneously reject 230 worst-case fiber optic sensor failures automatically. These sensor failures include locations with high leverage (or importance). To reduce the impact of leverage outliers, concentration based on a Mahalanobis trim criterion is introduced. A redescending M-estimator with Tukey bisquare weights is used to improve location and dispersion estimates within each concentration step in the presence of asymmetry (or leverage). A dynamic simulation is used to compare the concentrated robust estimator to a state-of-the-art real-time robust multivariate estimator. The estimators support a previously-derived mu-optimal shape controller. It is found that during the failure scenario, the concentrated modal estimator keeps the system stable.

Adaptive integral dynamic surface control of a hypersonic flight vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aslam Butt, Waseem; Yan, Lin; Amezquita S., Kendrick

2015-07-01

In this article, non-linear adaptive dynamic surface air speed and flight path angle control designs are presented for the longitudinal dynamics of a flexible hypersonic flight vehicle. The tracking performance of the control design is enhanced by introducing a novel integral term that caters to avoiding a large initial control signal. To ensure feasibility, the design scheme incorporates magnitude and rate constraints on the actuator commands. The uncertain non-linear functions are approximated by an efficient use of the neural networks to reduce the computational load. A detailed stability analysis shows that all closed-loop signals are uniformly ultimately bounded and the ? tracking performance is guaranteed. The robustness of the design scheme is verified through numerical simulations of the flexible flight vehicle model.

Ares I Flight Control System Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Charles; Lee, Chong; Jackson, Mark; Whorton, Mark; West, mark; Brandon, Jay; Hall, Rob A.; Jang, Jimmy; Bedrossian, Naz; Compton, Jimmy;

F-15B QuietSpike(TradeMark) Aeroservoelastic Flight Test Data Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kukreja, Sunil L.

2007-01-01

System identification or mathematical modelling is utilised in the aerospace community for the development of simulation models for robust control law design. These models are often described as linear, time-invariant processes and assumed to be uniform throughout the flight envelope. Nevertheless, it is well known that the underlying process is inherently nonlinear. The reason for utilising a linear approach has been due to the lack of a proper set of tools for the identification of nonlinear systems. Over the past several decades the controls and biomedical communities have made great advances in developing tools for the identification of nonlinear systems. These approaches are robust and readily applicable to aerospace systems. In this paper, we show the application of one such nonlinear system identification technique, structure detection, for the analysis of F-15B QuietSpike(TradeMark) aeroservoelastic flight test data. Structure detection is concerned with the selection of a subset of candidate terms that best describe the observed output. This is a necessary procedure to compute an efficient system description which may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. Structure computation as a tool for black-box modelling may be of critical importance for the development of robust, parsimonious models for the flight-test community. Moreover, this approach may lead to efficient strategies for rapid envelope expansion which may save significant development time and costs. The objectives of this study are to demonstrate via analysis of F-15B QuietSpike(TradeMark) aeroservoelastic flight test data for several flight conditions (Mach number) that (i) linear models are inefficient for modelling aeroservoelastic data, (ii) nonlinear identification provides a parsimonious model description whilst providing a high percent fit for cross-validated data and (iii) the model structure and parameters vary as the flight condition is altered.

Flight Testing of the Space Launch System (SLS) Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) Algorithm on an F/A-18

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dennehy, Cornelius J.; VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Wall, John H.; Miller, Chris J.; Gilligan, Eric T.; Orr, Jeb S.

2014-01-01

The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Flight Mechanics and Analysis Division developed an adaptive augmenting control (AAC) algorithm for launch vehicles that improves robustness and performance on an as-needed basis by adapting a classical control algorithm to unexpected environments or variations in vehicle dynamics. This was baselined as part of the Space Launch System (SLS) flight control system. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) was asked to partner with the SLS Program and the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) to flight test the AAC algorithm on a manned aircraft that can achieve a high level of dynamic similarity to a launch vehicle and raise the technology readiness of the algorithm early in the program. This document reports the outcome of the NESC assessment.

Robust crossfeed design for hovering rotorcraft. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Catapang, David R.

1993-01-01

Control law design for rotorcraft fly-by-wire systems normally attempts to decouple angular responses using fixed-gain crossfeeds. This approach can lead to poor decoupling over the frequency range of pilot inputs and increase the load on the feedback loops. In order to improve the decoupling performance, dynamic crossfeeds may be adopted. Moreover, because of the large changes that occur in rotorcraft dynamics due to small changes about the nominal design condition, especially for near-hovering flight, the crossfeed design must be 'robust.' A new low-order matching method is presented here to design robost crossfeed compensators for multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) systems. The technique identifies degrees-of-freedom that can be decoupled using crossfeeds, given an anticipated set of parameter variations for the range of flight conditions of concern. Cross-coupling is then reduced for degrees-of-freedom that can use crossfeed compensation by minimizing off-axis response magnitude average and variance. Results are presented for the analysis of pitch, roll, yaw, and heave coupling of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in near-hovering flight. Robust crossfeeds are designed that show significant improvement in decoupling performance and robustness over nominal, single design point, compensators. The design method and results are presented in an easily-used graphical format that lends significant physical insight to the design procedure. This plant pre-compensation technique is an appropriate preliminary step to the design of robust feedback control laws for rotorcraft.

Hexacopter trajectory control using a neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Artale, V.; Collotta, M.; Pau, G.; Ricciardello, A.

2013-10-01

The modern flight control systems are complex due to their non-linear nature. In fact, modern aerospace vehicles are expected to have non-conventional flight envelopes and, then, they must guarantee a high level of robustness and adaptability in order to operate in uncertain environments. Neural Networks (NN), with real-time learning capability, for flight control can be used in applications with manned or unmanned aerial vehicles. Indeed, using proven lower level control algorithms with adaptive elements that exhibit long term learning could help in achieving better adaptation performance while performing aggressive maneuvers. In this paper we show a mathematical modeling and a Neural Network for a hexacopter dynamics in order to develop proper methods for stabilization and trajectory control.

Inspiration for wing design: how forelimb specialization enables active flight in modern vertebrates.

PubMed

Chin, Diana D; Matloff, Laura Y; Stowers, Amanda Kay; Tucci, Emily R; Lentink, David

2017-06-01

Harnessing flight strategies refined by millions of years of evolution can help expedite the design of more efficient, manoeuvrable and robust flying robots. This review synthesizes recent advances and highlights remaining gaps in our understanding of how bird and bat wing adaptations enable effective flight. Included in this discussion is an evaluation of how current robotic analogues measure up to their biological sources of inspiration. Studies of vertebrate wings have revealed skeletal systems well suited for enduring the loads required during flight, but the mechanisms that drive coordinated motions between bones and connected integuments remain ill-described. Similarly, vertebrate flight muscles have adapted to sustain increased wing loading, but a lack of in vivo studies limits our understanding of specific muscular functions. Forelimb adaptations diverge at the integument level, but both bird feathers and bat membranes yield aerodynamic surfaces with a level of robustness unparalleled by engineered wings. These morphological adaptations enable a diverse range of kinematics tuned for different flight speeds and manoeuvres. By integrating vertebrate flight specializations-particularly those that enable greater robustness and adaptability-into the design and control of robotic wings, engineers can begin narrowing the wide margin that currently exists between flying robots and vertebrates. In turn, these robotic wings can help biologists create experiments that would be impossible in vivo . © 2017 The Author(s).

IRAC Full-Scale Flight Testbed Capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, James A.; Pahle, Joseph; Cogan, Bruce R.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Bosworth, John T.

2009-01-01

Overview: Provide validation of adaptive control law concepts through full scale flight evaluation in a representative avionics architecture. Develop an understanding of aircraft dynamics of current vehicles in damaged and upset conditions Real-world conditions include: a) Turbulence, sensor noise, feedback biases; and b) Coupling between pilot and adaptive system. Simulated damage includes 1) "B" matrix (surface) failures; and 2) "A" matrix failures. Evaluate robustness of control systems to anticipated and unanticipated failures.

Investigation of Multi-Input Multi-Output Robust Control Methods to Handle Parametric Uncertainties in Autopilot Design.

PubMed

Kasnakoğlu, Coşku

2016-01-01

Some level of uncertainty is unavoidable in acquiring the mass, geometry parameters and stability derivatives of an aerial vehicle. In certain instances tiny perturbations of these could potentially cause considerable variations in flight characteristics. This research considers the impact of varying these parameters altogether. This is a generalization of examining the effects of particular parameters on selected modes present in existing literature. Conventional autopilot designs commonly assume that each flight channel is independent and develop single-input single-output (SISO) controllers for every one, that are utilized in parallel for actual flight. It is demonstrated that an attitude controller built like this can function flawlessly on separate nominal cases, but can become unstable with a perturbation no more than 2%. Two robust multi-input multi-output (MIMO) design strategies, specifically loop-shaping and μ-synthesis are outlined as potential substitutes and are observed to handle large parametric changes of 30% while preserving decent performance. Duplicating the loop-shaping procedure for the outer loop, a complete flight control system is formed. It is confirmed through software-in-the-loop (SIL) verifications utilizing blade element theory (BET) that the autopilot is capable of navigation and landing exposed to high parametric variations and powerful winds.

Investigation of Multi-Input Multi-Output Robust Control Methods to Handle Parametric Uncertainties in Autopilot Design

PubMed Central

Kasnakoğlu, Coşku

2016-01-01

Some level of uncertainty is unavoidable in acquiring the mass, geometry parameters and stability derivatives of an aerial vehicle. In certain instances tiny perturbations of these could potentially cause considerable variations in flight characteristics. This research considers the impact of varying these parameters altogether. This is a generalization of examining the effects of particular parameters on selected modes present in existing literature. Conventional autopilot designs commonly assume that each flight channel is independent and develop single-input single-output (SISO) controllers for every one, that are utilized in parallel for actual flight. It is demonstrated that an attitude controller built like this can function flawlessly on separate nominal cases, but can become unstable with a perturbation no more than 2%. Two robust multi-input multi-output (MIMO) design strategies, specifically loop-shaping and μ-synthesis are outlined as potential substitutes and are observed to handle large parametric changes of 30% while preserving decent performance. Duplicating the loop-shaping procedure for the outer loop, a complete flight control system is formed. It is confirmed through software-in-the-loop (SIL) verifications utilizing blade element theory (BET) that the autopilot is capable of navigation and landing exposed to high parametric variations and powerful winds. PMID:27783706

Integrated modeling and robust control for full-envelope flight of robotic helicopters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

La Civita, Marco

Robotic helicopters have attracted a great deal of interest from the university, the industry, and the military world. They are versatile machines and there is a large number of important missions that they could accomplish. Nonetheless, there are only a handful of documented examples of robotic-helicopter applications in real-world scenarios. This situation is mainly due to the poor flight performance that can be achieved and---more important---guaranteed under automatic control. Given the maturity of control theory, and given the large body of knowledge in helicopter dynamics, it seems that the lack of success in flying high-performance controllers for robotic helicopters, especially by academic groups and by small industries, has nothing to do with helicopters or control theory as such. The problem lies instead in the large amount of time and resources needed to synthesize, test, and implement new control systems with the approach normally followed in the aeronautical industry. This thesis attempts to provide a solution by presenting a modeling and control framework that minimizes the time, cost, and both human and physical resources necessary to design high-performance flight controllers. The work is divided in two main parts. The first consists of the development of a modeling technique that allows the designer to obtain a high-fidelity model adequate for both real-time simulation and controller design, with few flight, ground, and wind-tunnel tests and a modest level of complexity in the dynamic equations. The second consists of the exploitation of the predictive capabilities of the model and of the robust stability and performance guarantees of the Hinfinity loop-shaping control theory to reduce the number of iterations of the design/simulated-evaluation/flight-test-evaluation procedure. The effectiveness of this strategy is demonstrated by designing and flight testing a wide-envelope high-performance controller for the Carnegie Mellon University robotic helicopter.

Aircraft ride quality controller design using new robust root clustering theory for linear uncertain systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yedavalli, R. K.

1992-01-01

The aspect of controller design for improving the ride quality of aircraft in terms of damping ratio and natural frequency specifications on the short period dynamics is addressed. The controller is designed to be robust with respect to uncertainties in the real parameters of the control design model such as uncertainties in the dimensional stability derivatives, imperfections in actuator/sensor locations and possibly variations in flight conditions, etc. The design is based on a new robust root clustering theory developed by the author by extending the nominal root clustering theory of Gutman and Jury to perturbed matrices. The proposed methodology allows to get an explicit relationship between the parameters of the root clustering region and the uncertainty radius of the parameter space. The current literature available for robust stability becomes a special case of this unified theory. The bounds derived on the parameter perturbation for robust root clustering are then used in selecting the robust controller.

Sliding Mode Control Applied to Reconfigurable Flight Control Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, R. A.; Wells, S. R.; Bacon, Barton (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Sliding mode control is applied to the design of a flight control system capable of operating with limited bandwidth actuators and in the presence of significant damage to the airframe and/or control effector actuators. Although inherently robust, sliding mode control algorithms have been hampered by their sensitivity to the effects of parasitic unmodeled dynamics, such as those associated with actuators and structural modes. It is known that asymptotic observers can alleviate this sensitivity while still allowing the system to exhibit significant robustness. This approach is demonstrated. The selection of the sliding manifold as well as the interpretation of the linear design that results after introduction of a boundary layer is accomplished in the frequency domain. The design technique is exercised on a pitch-axis controller for a simple short-period model of the High Angle of Attack F-18 vehicle via computer simulation. Stability and performance is compared to that of a system incorporating a controller designed by classical loop-shaping techniques.

Geometry Modeling and Adaptive Control of Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vick, Tyler Joseph

Air-breathing hypersonic vehicles have the potential to provide global reach and affordable access to space. Recent technological advancements have made scramjet-powered flight achievable, as evidenced by the successes of the X-43A and X-51A flight test programs over the last decade. Air-breathing hypersonic vehicles present unique modeling and control challenges in large part due to the fact that scramjet propulsion systems are highly integrated into the airframe, resulting in strongly coupled and often unstable dynamics. Additionally, the extreme flight conditions and inability to test fully integrated vehicle systems larger than X-51 before flight leads to inherent uncertainty in hypersonic flight. This thesis presents a means to design vehicle geometries, simulate vehicle dynamics, and develop and analyze control systems for hypersonic vehicles. First, a software tool for generating three-dimensional watertight vehicle surface meshes from simple design parameters is developed. These surface meshes are compatible with existing vehicle analysis tools, with which databases of aerodynamic and propulsive forces and moments can be constructed. A six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear dynamics simulation model which incorporates this data is presented. Inner-loop longitudinal and lateral control systems are designed and analyzed utilizing the simulation model. The first is an output feedback proportional-integral linear controller designed using linear quadratic regulator techniques. The second is a model reference adaptive controller (MRAC) which augments this baseline linear controller with an adaptive element. The performance and robustness of each controller are analyzed through simulated time responses to angle-of-attack and bank angle commands, while various uncertainties are introduced. The MRAC architecture enables the controller to adapt in a nonlinear fashion to deviations from the desired response, allowing for improved tracking performance, stability, and robustness.

A Piloted Evaluation of Damage Accommodating Flight Control Using a Remotely Piloted Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cunningham, Kevin; Cox, David E.; Murri, Daniel G.; Riddick, Stephen E.

2011-01-01

Toward the goal of reducing the fatal accident rate of large transport airplanes due to loss of control, the NASA Aviation Safety Program has conducted research into flight control technologies that can provide resilient control of airplanes under adverse flight conditions, including damage and failure. As part of the safety program s Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control Project, the NASA Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research system was designed to address the challenges associated with the safe and efficient subscale flight testing of research control laws under adverse flight conditions. This paper presents the results of a series of pilot evaluations of several flight control algorithms used during an offset-to-landing task conducted at altitude. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the ability of various flight control technologies to prevent loss of control as stability and control characteristics were degraded. During the course of 8 research flights, data were recorded while one task was repeatedly executed by a single evaluation pilot. Two generic failures, which degraded stability and control characteristics, were simulated inflight for each of the 9 different flight control laws that were tested. The flight control laws included three different adaptive control methodologies, several linear multivariable designs, a linear robust design, a linear stability augmentation system, and a direct open-loop control mode. Based on pilot Cooper-Harper Ratings obtained for this test, the adaptive flight control laws provided the greatest overall benefit for the stability and control degradation scenarios that were considered. Also, all controllers tested provided a significant improvement in handling qualities over the direct open-loop control mode.

Rule-based navigation control design for autonomous flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Contreras, Hugo; Bassi, Danilo

2008-04-01

This article depicts a navigation control system design that is based on a set of rules in order to follow a desired trajectory. The full control of the aircraft considered here comprises: a low level stability control loop, based on classic PID controller and the higher level navigation whose main job is to exercise lateral control (course) and altitude control, trying to follow a desired trajectory. The rules and PID gains were adjusted systematically according to the result of flight simulation. In spite of its simplicity, the rule-based navigation control proved to be robust, even with big perturbation, like crossing winds.

Flight-determined stability analysis of multiple-input-multiple-output control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burken, John J.

1992-01-01

Singular value analysis can give conservative stability margin results. Applying structure to the uncertainty can reduce this conservatism. This paper presents flight-determined stability margins for the X-29A lateral-directional, multiloop control system. These margins are compared with the predicted unscaled singular values and scaled structured singular values. The algorithm was further evaluated with flight data by changing the roll-rate-to-aileron command-feedback gain by +/- 20 percent. Minimum eigenvalues of the return difference matrix which bound the singular values are also presented. Extracting multiloop singular values from flight data and analyzing the feedback gain variations validates this technique as a measure of robustness. This analysis can be used for near-real-time flight monitoring and safety testing.

Flight-determined stability analysis of multiple-input-multiple-output control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burken, John J.

1992-01-01

Singular value analysis can give conservative stability margin results. Applying structure to the uncertainty can reduce this conservatism. This paper presents flight-determined stability margins for the X-29A lateral-directional, multiloop control system. These margins are compared with the predicted unscaled singular values and scaled structured singular values. The algorithm was further evaluated with flight data by changing the roll-rate-to-aileron-command-feedback gain by +/- 20 percent. Also presented are the minimum eigenvalues of the return difference matrix which bound the singular values. Extracting multiloop singular values from flight data and analyzing the feedback gain variations validates this technique as a measure of robustness. This analysis can be used for near-real-time flight monitoring and safety testing.

Design and evaluation of a robust dynamic neurocontroller for a multivariable aircraft control problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Troudet, T.; Garg, S.; Merrill, W.

1992-01-01

The design of a dynamic neurocontroller with good robustness properties is presented for a multivariable aircraft control problem. The internal dynamics of the neurocontroller are synthesized by a state estimator feedback loop. The neurocontrol is generated by a multilayer feedforward neural network which is trained through backpropagation to minimize an objective function that is a weighted sum of tracking errors, and control input commands and rates. The neurocontroller exhibits good robustness through stability margins in phase and vehicle output gains. By maintaining performance and stability in the presence of sensor failures in the error loops, the structure of the neurocontroller is also consistent with the classical approach of flight control design.

Controle du vol longitudinal d'un avion civil avec satisfaction de qualiies de manoeuvrabilite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saussie, David Alexandre

2010-03-01

Fulfilling handling qualities still remains a challenging problem during flight control design. These criteria of different nature are derived from a wide experience based upon flight tests and data analysis, and they have to be considered if one expects a good behaviour of the aircraft. The goal of this thesis is to develop synthesis methods able to satisfy these criteria with fixed classical architectures imposed by the manufacturer or with a new flight control architecture. This is applied to the longitudinal flight model of a Bombardier Inc. business jet aircraft, namely the Challenger 604. A first step of our work consists in compiling the most commonly used handling qualities in order to compare them. A special attention is devoted to the dropback criterion for which theoretical analysis leads us to establish a practical formulation for synthesis purpose. Moreover, the comparison of the criteria through a reference model highlighted dominant criteria that, once satisfied, ensure that other ones are satisfied too. Consequently, we are able to consider the fulfillment of these criteria in the fixed control architecture framework. Guardian maps (Saydy et al., 1990) are then considered to handle the problem. Initially for robustness study, they are integrated in various algorithms for controller synthesis. Incidently, this fixed architecture problem is similar to the static output feedback stabilization problem and reduced-order controller synthesis. Algorithms performing stabilization and pole assignment in a specific region of the complex plane are then proposed. Afterwards, they are extended to handle the gain-scheduling problem. The controller is then scheduled through the entire flight envelope with respect to scheduling parameters. Thereafter, the fixed architecture is put aside while only conserving the same output signals. The main idea is to use Hinfinity synthesis to obtain an initial controller satisfying handling qualities thanks to reference model pairing and robust versus mass and center of gravity variations. Using robust modal control (Magni, 2002), we are able to reduce substantially the controller order and to structure it in order to come close to a classical architecture. An auto-scheduling method finally allows us to schedule the controller with respect to scheduling parameters. Two different paths are used to solve the same problem; each one exhibits its own advantages and disadvantages.

Multi-application controls: Robust nonlinear multivariable aerospace controls applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Enns, Dale F.; Bugajski, Daniel J.; Carter, John; Antoniewicz, Bob

1994-01-01

This viewgraph presentation describes the general methodology used to apply Honywell's Multi-Application Control (MACH) and the specific application to the F-18 High Angle-of-Attack Research Vehicle (HARV) including piloted simulation handling qualities evaluation. The general steps include insertion of modeling data for geometry and mass properties, aerodynamics, propulsion data and assumptions, requirements and specifications, e.g. definition of control variables, handling qualities, stability margins and statements for bandwidth, control power, priorities, position and rate limits. The specific steps include choice of independent variables for least squares fits to aerodynamic and propulsion data, modifications to the management of the controls with regard to integrator windup and actuation limiting and priorities, e.g. pitch priority over roll, and command limiting to prevent departures and/or undesirable inertial coupling or inability to recover to a stable trim condition. The HARV control problem is characterized by significant nonlinearities and multivariable interactions in the low speed, high angle-of-attack, high angular rate flight regime. Systematic approaches to the control of vehicle motions modeled with coupled nonlinear equations of motion have been developed. This paper will discuss the dynamic inversion approach which explicity accounts for nonlinearities in the control design. Multiple control effectors (including aerodynamic control surfaces and thrust vectoring control) and sensors are used to control the motions of the vehicles in several degrees-of-freedom. Several maneuvers will be used to illustrate performance of MACH in the high angle-of-attack flight regime. Analytical methods for assessing the robust performance of the multivariable control system in the presence of math modeling uncertainty, disturbances, and commands have reached a high level of maturity. The structured singular value (mu) frequency response methodology is presented as a method for analyzing robust performance and the mu-synthesis method will be presented as a method for synthesizing a robust control system. The paper concludes with the author's expectations regarding future applications of robust nonlinear multivariable controls.

An Integrated Approach to Damage Accommodation in Flight Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boskovic, Jovan D.; Knoebel, Nathan; Mehra, Raman K.; Gregory, Irene

2008-01-01

In this paper we present an integrated approach to in-flight damage accommodation in flight control. The approach is based on Multiple Models, Switching and Tuning (MMST), and consists of three steps: In the first step the main objective is to acquire a realistic aircraft damage model. Modeling of in-flight damage is a highly complex problem since there is a large number of issues that need to be addressed. One of the most important one is that there is strong coupling between structural dynamics, aerodynamics, and flight control. These effects cannot be studied separately due to this coupling. Once a realistic damage model is available, in the second step a large number of models corresponding to different damage cases are generated. One possibility is to generate many linear models and interpolate between them to cover a large portion of the flight envelope. Once these models have been generated, we will implement a recently developed-Model Set Reduction (MSR) technique. The technique is based on parameterizing damage in terms of uncertain parameters, and uses concepts from robust control theory to arrive at a small number of "centered" models such that the controllers corresponding to these models assure desired stability and robustness properties over a subset in the parametric space. By devising a suitable model placement strategy, the entire parametric set is covered with a relatively small number of models and controllers. The third step consists of designing a Multiple Models, Switching and Tuning (MMST) strategy for estimating the current operating regime (damage case) of the aircraft, and switching to the corresponding controller to achieve effective damage accommodation and the desired performance. In the paper present a comprehensive approach to damage accommodation using Model Set Design,MMST, and Variable Structure compensation for coupling nonlinearities. The approach was evaluated on a model of F/A-18 aircraft dynamics under control effector damage, augmented by nonlinear cross-coupling terms and a structural dynamics model. The proposed approach achieved excellent performance under severe damage effects.

A Flight Control System for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tunik, A. A.; Nadsadnaya, O. I.

2018-03-01

The program adaptation of the controller for the flight control system (FCS) of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is considered. Linearized flight dynamic models depend mainly on the true airspeed of the UAV, which is measured by the onboard air data system. This enables its use for program adaptation of the FCS over the full range of altitudes and velocities, which define the flight operating range. FCS with program adaptation, based on static feedback (SF), is selected. The SF parameters for every sub-range of the true airspeed are determined using the linear matrix inequality approach in the case of discrete systems for synthesis of a suboptimal robust H ∞-controller. The use of the Lagrange interpolation between true airspeed sub-ranges provides continuous adaptation. The efficiency of the proposed approach is shown against an example of the heading stabilization system.

Uncertainty Modeling for Robustness Analysis of Control Upset Prevention and Recovery Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Belcastro, Christine M.; Khong, Thuan H.; Shin, Jong-Yeob; Kwatny, Harry; Chang, Bor-Chin; Balas, Gary J.

2005-01-01

Formal robustness analysis of aircraft control upset prevention and recovery systems could play an important role in their validation and ultimate certification. Such systems (developed for failure detection, identification, and reconfiguration, as well as upset recovery) need to be evaluated over broad regions of the flight envelope and under extreme flight conditions, and should include various sources of uncertainty. However, formulation of linear fractional transformation (LFT) models for representing system uncertainty can be very difficult for complex parameter-dependent systems. This paper describes a preliminary LFT modeling software tool which uses a matrix-based computational approach that can be directly applied to parametric uncertainty problems involving multivariate matrix polynomial dependencies. Several examples are presented (including an F-16 at an extreme flight condition, a missile model, and a generic example with numerous crossproduct terms), and comparisons are given with other LFT modeling tools that are currently available. The LFT modeling method and preliminary software tool presented in this paper are shown to compare favorably with these methods.

The X-43A Six Degree of Freedom Monte Carlo Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baumann, Ethan; Bahm, Catherine; Strovers, Brian; Beck, Roger; Richard, Michael

2007-01-01

This report provides an overview of the Hyper-X research vehicle Monte Carlo analysis conducted with the six-degree-of-freedom simulation. The methodology and model uncertainties used for the Monte Carlo analysis are presented as permitted. In addition, the process used to select hardware validation test cases from the Monte Carlo data is described. The preflight Monte Carlo analysis indicated that the X-43A control system was robust to the preflight uncertainties and provided the Hyper-X project an important indication that the vehicle would likely be successful in accomplishing the mission objectives. The X-43A in-flight performance is compared to the preflight Monte Carlo predictions and shown to exceed the Monte Carlo bounds in several instances. Possible modeling shortfalls are presented that may account for these discrepancies. The flight control laws and guidance algorithms were robust enough as a result of the preflight Monte Carlo analysis that the unexpected in-flight performance did not have undue consequences. Modeling and Monte Carlo analysis lessons learned are presented.

Enhanced Bank of Kalman Filters Developed and Demonstrated for In-Flight Aircraft Engine Sensor Fault Diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kobayashi, Takahisa; Simon, Donald L.

2005-01-01

In-flight sensor fault detection and isolation (FDI) is critical to maintaining reliable engine operation during flight. The aircraft engine control system, which computes control commands on the basis of sensor measurements, operates the propulsion systems at the demanded conditions. Any undetected sensor faults, therefore, may cause the control system to drive the engine into an undesirable operating condition. It is critical to detect and isolate failed sensors as soon as possible so that such scenarios can be avoided. A challenging issue in developing reliable sensor FDI systems is to make them robust to changes in engine operating characteristics due to degradation with usage and other faults that can occur during flight. A sensor FDI system that cannot appropriately account for such scenarios may result in false alarms, missed detections, or misclassifications when such faults do occur. To address this issue, an enhanced bank of Kalman filters was developed, and its performance and robustness were demonstrated in a simulation environment. The bank of filters is composed of m + 1 Kalman filters, where m is the number of sensors being used by the control system and, thus, in need of monitoring. Each Kalman filter is designed on the basis of a unique fault hypothesis so that it will be able to maintain its performance if a particular fault scenario, hypothesized by that particular filter, takes place.

A Comprehensive Robust Adaptive Controller for Gust Load Alleviation

PubMed Central

Quagliotti, Fulvia

2014-01-01

The objective of this paper is the implementation and validation of an adaptive controller for aircraft gust load alleviation. The contribution of this paper is the design of a robust controller that guarantees the reduction of the gust loads, even when the nominal conditions change. Some preliminary results are presented, considering the symmetric aileron deflection as control device. The proposed approach is validated on subsonic transport aircraft for different mass and flight conditions. Moreover, if the controller parameters are tuned for a specific gust model, even if the gust frequency changes, no parameter retuning is required. PMID:24688411

Optimal Controller Design for the Microgravity Isolation Mount (MIM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hampton, R. David

1998-01-01

H2 controllers, when designed using an appropriate design model and carefully chosen frequency weightings, appear to provide robust performance and robust stability for Microgravity Isolation Mount (MIM). The STS-85 flight data will be used to evaluate the H2 controllers' performance on the actual hardware under working conditions. Next, full-order H-infinity controllers will be developed, as an intermediate step, in order to determine appropriate H-infinity performance weights for use in the mixed-norm design. Finally the basic procedure outlined above will be used to develop fixed-order mixed-norm controllers for MIM.

Effect of light intensity on flight control and temporal properties of photoreceptors in bumblebees.

PubMed

Reber, Therese; Vähäkainu, Antti; Baird, Emily; Weckström, Matti; Warrant, Eric; Dacke, Marie

2015-05-01

To control flight, insects rely on the pattern of visual motion generated on the retina as they move through the environment. When light levels fall, vision becomes less reliable and flight control thus becomes more challenging. Here, we investigated the effect of light intensity on flight control by filming the trajectories of free-flying bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, Linnaeus 1758) in an experimental tunnel at different light levels. As light levels fell, flight speed decreased and the flight trajectories became more tortuous but the bees were still remarkably good at centring their flight about the tunnel's midline. To investigate whether this robust flight performance can be explained by visual adaptations in the bumblebee retina, we also examined the response speed of the green-sensitive photoreceptors at the same light intensities. We found that the response speed of the photoreceptors significantly decreased as light levels fell. This indicates that bumblebees have both behavioural (reduction in flight speed) and retinal (reduction in response speed of the photoreceptors) adaptations to allow them to fly in dim light. However, the more tortuous flight paths recorded in dim light suggest that these adaptations do not support flight with the same precision during the twilight hours of the day. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Analysis of airframe/engine interactions in integrated flight and propulsion control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schierman, John D.; Schmidt, David K.

1991-01-01

An analysis framework for the assessment of dynamic cross-coupling between airframe and engine systems from the perspective of integrated flight/propulsion control is presented. This analysis involves to determining the significance of the interactions with respect to deterioration in stability robustness and performance, as well as critical frequency ranges where problems may occur due to these interactions. The analysis illustrated here investigates both the airframe's effects on the engine control loops and the engine's effects on the airframe control loops in two case studies. The second case study involves a multi-input/multi-output analysis of the airframe. Sensitivity studies are performed on critical interactions to examine the degradations in the system's stability robustness and performance. Magnitudes of the interactions required to cause instabilities, as well as the frequencies at which the instabilities occur are recorded. Finally, the analysis framework is expanded to include control laws which contain cross-feeds between the airframe and engine systems.

Robust Gain-Scheduled Fault Tolerant Control for a Transport Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shin, Jong-Yeob; Gregory, Irene

2007-01-01

This paper presents an application of robust gain-scheduled control concepts using a linear parameter-varying (LPV) control synthesis method to design fault tolerant controllers for a civil transport aircraft. To apply the robust LPV control synthesis method, the nonlinear dynamics must be represented by an LPV model, which is developed using the function substitution method over the entire flight envelope. The developed LPV model associated with the aerodynamic coefficient uncertainties represents nonlinear dynamics including those outside the equilibrium manifold. Passive and active fault tolerant controllers (FTC) are designed for the longitudinal dynamics of the Boeing 747-100/200 aircraft in the presence of elevator failure. Both FTC laws are evaluated in the full nonlinear aircraft simulation in the presence of the elevator fault and the results are compared to show pros and cons of each control law.

Low bandwidth robust controllers for flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biezad, Daniel J.; Chou, Hwei-Lan

1992-01-01

During the final reporting period (Jun. - Dec. 1992), analyses of the longitudinal and lateral flying qualities were made for propulsive-only flight control (POFC) of a Boeing 720 aircraft model. Performance resulting from compensators developed using Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) is documented and analyzed. This report is a first draft of a thesis to be presented by graduate student Hwei-Lan Chou. The final thesis will be presented to NASA when it is completed later this year. The latest landing metrics related to bandwidth criteria and based on the Neal-Smith approach to flying qualities prediction were used in developing performance criteria for the controllers. The compensator designs were tested on the NASA simulator and exhibited adequate performance for piloted flight. There was no significant impact of QFT on performance of the propulsive-only flight controllers in either the longitudinal or lateral modes of flight. This was attributed to the physical limits of thrust available and the engine rate of response, both of whiih severely limited the available bandwidth of the closed-loop system.

Design and implementation of robust decentralized control laws for the ACES structure at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collins, Emmanuel G., Jr.; Phillips, Douglas J.; Hyland, David C.

1990-01-01

Many large space system concepts will require active vibration control to satisfy critical performance requirements such as line-of-sight accuracy. In order for these concepts to become operational it is imperative that the benefits of active vibration control be practically demonstrated in ground based experiments. The results of the experiment successfully demonstrate active vibration control for a flexible structure. The testbed is the Active Control Technique Evaluation for Spacecraft (ACES) structure at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The ACES structure is dynamically traceable to future space systems and especially allows the study of line-of-sight control issues.

Modal control theory and application to aircraft lateral handling qualities design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srinathkumar, S.

1978-01-01

A multivariable synthesis procedure based on eigenvalue/eigenvector assignment is reviewed and is employed to develop a systematic design procedure to meet the lateral handling qualities design objectives of a fighter aircraft over a wide range of flight conditions. The closed loop modal characterization developed provides significant insight into the design process and plays a pivotal role in the synthesis of robust feedback systems. The simplicity of the synthesis algorithm yields an efficient computer aided interactive design tool for flight control system synthesis.

Control design for robust stability in linear regulators: Application to aerospace flight control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yedavalli, R. K.

1986-01-01

Time domain stability robustness analysis and design for linear multivariable uncertain systems with bounded uncertainties is the central theme of the research. After reviewing the recently developed upper bounds on the linear elemental (structured), time varying perturbation of an asymptotically stable linear time invariant regulator, it is shown that it is possible to further improve these bounds by employing state transformations. Then introducing a quantitative measure called the stability robustness index, a state feedback conrol design algorithm is presented for a general linear regulator problem and then specialized to the case of modal systems as well as matched systems. The extension of the algorithm to stochastic systems with Kalman filter as the state estimator is presented. Finally an algorithm for robust dynamic compensator design is presented using Parameter Optimization (PO) procedure. Applications in a aircraft control and flexible structure control are presented along with a comparison with other existing methods.

Integration of Online Parameter Identification and Neural Network for In-Flight Adaptive Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hageman, Jacob J.; Smith, Mark S.; Stachowiak, Susan

2003-01-01

An indirect adaptive system has been constructed for robust control of an aircraft with uncertain aerodynamic characteristics. This system consists of a multilayer perceptron pre-trained neural network, online stability and control derivative identification, a dynamic cell structure online learning neural network, and a model following control system based on the stochastic optimal feedforward and feedback technique. The pre-trained neural network and model following control system have been flight-tested, but the online parameter identification and online learning neural network are new additions used for in-flight adaptation of the control system model. A description of the modification and integration of these two stand-alone software packages into the complete system in preparation for initial flight tests is presented. Open-loop results using both simulation and flight data, as well as closed-loop performance of the complete system in a nonlinear, six-degree-of-freedom, flight validated simulation, are analyzed. Results show that this online learning system, in contrast to the nonlearning system, has the ability to adapt to changes in aerodynamic characteristics in a real-time, closed-loop, piloted simulation, resulting in improved flying qualities.

Robust, Practical Adaptive Control for Launch Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orr, Jeb. S.; VanZwieten, Tannen S.

2012-01-01

A modern mechanization of a classical adaptive control concept is presented with an application to launch vehicle attitude control systems. Due to a rigorous flight certification environment, many adaptive control concepts are infeasible when applied to high-risk aerospace systems; methods of stability analysis are either intractable for high complexity models or cannot be reconciled in light of classical requirements. Furthermore, many adaptive techniques appearing in the literature are not suitable for application to conditionally stable systems with complex flexible-body dynamics, as is often the case with launch vehicles. The present technique is a multiplicative forward loop gain adaptive law similar to that used for the NASA X-15 flight research vehicle. In digital implementation with several novel features, it is well-suited to application on aerodynamically unstable launch vehicles with thrust vector control via augmentation of the baseline attitude/attitude-rate feedback control scheme. The approach is compatible with standard design features of autopilots for launch vehicles, including phase stabilization of lateral bending and slosh via linear filters. In addition, the method of assessing flight control stability via classical gain and phase margins is not affected under reasonable assumptions. The algorithm s ability to recover from certain unstable operating regimes can in fact be understood in terms of frequency-domain criteria. Finally, simulation results are presented that confirm the ability of the algorithm to improve performance and robustness in realistic failure scenarios.

Development and Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Flight Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Song, Yong D.; Gupta, Kajal (Technical Monitor)

2004-01-01

The research is concerned with developing a new approach to enhancing fault tolerance of flight control systems. The original motivation for fault-tolerant control comes from the need for safe operation of control elements (e.g. actuators) in the event of hardware failures in high reliability systems. One such example is modem space vehicle subjected to actuator/sensor impairments. A major task in flight control is to revise the control policy to balance impairment detectability and to achieve sufficient robustness. This involves careful selection of types and parameters of the controllers and the impairment detecting filters used. It also involves a decision, upon the identification of some failures, on whether and how a control reconfiguration should take place in order to maintain a certain system performance level. In this project new flight dynamic model under uncertain flight conditions is considered, in which the effects of both ramp and jump faults are reflected. Stabilization algorithms based on neural network and adaptive method are derived. The control algorithms are shown to be effective in dealing with uncertain dynamics due to external disturbances and unpredictable faults. The overall strategy is easy to set up and the computation involved is much less as compared with other strategies. Computer simulation software is developed. A serious of simulation studies have been conducted with varying flight conditions.

Robust Flutter Margin Analysis that Incorporates Flight Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, Rick; Brenner, Martin J.

1998-01-01

An approach for computing worst-case flutter margins has been formulated in a robust stability framework. Uncertainty operators are included with a linear model to describe modeling errors and flight variations. The structured singular value, mu, computes a stability margin that directly accounts for these uncertainties. This approach introduces a new method of computing flutter margins and an associated new parameter for describing these margins. The mu margins are robust margins that indicate worst-case stability estimates with respect to the defined uncertainty. Worst-case flutter margins are computed for the F/A-18 Systems Research Aircraft using uncertainty sets generated by flight data analysis. The robust margins demonstrate flight conditions for flutter may lie closer to the flight envelope than previously estimated by p-k analysis.

Control-oriented reduced order modeling of dipteran flapping flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faruque, Imraan

Flying insects achieve flight stabilization and control in a manner that requires only small, specialized neural structures to perform the essential components of sensing and feedback, achieving unparalleled levels of robust aerobatic flight on limited computational resources. An engineering mechanism to replicate these control strategies could provide a dramatic increase in the mobility of small scale aerial robotics, but a formal investigation has not yet yielded tools that both quantitatively and intuitively explain flapping wing flight as an "input-output" relationship. This work uses experimental and simulated measurements of insect flight to create reduced order flight dynamics models. The framework presented here creates models that are relevant for the study of control properties. The work begins with automated measurement of insect wing motions in free flight, which are then used to calculate flight forces via an empirically-derived aerodynamics model. When paired with rigid body dynamics and experimentally measured state feedback, both the bare airframe and closed loop systems may be analyzed using frequency domain system identification. Flight dynamics models describing maneuvering about hover and cruise conditions are presented for example fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and blowflies (Calliphorids). The results show that biologically measured feedback paths are appropriate for flight stabilization and sexual dimorphism is only a minor factor in flight dynamics. A method of ranking kinematic control inputs to maximize maneuverability is also presented, showing that the volume of reachable configurations in state space can be dramatically increased due to appropriate choice of kinematic inputs.

Robust reliable sampled-data control for switched systems with application to flight control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakthivel, R.; Joby, Maya; Shi, P.; Mathiyalagan, K.

2016-11-01

This paper addresses the robust reliable stabilisation problem for a class of uncertain switched systems with random delays and norm bounded uncertainties. The main aim of this paper is to obtain the reliable robust sampled-data control design which involves random time delay with an appropriate gain control matrix for achieving the robust exponential stabilisation for uncertain switched system against actuator failures. In particular, the involved delays are assumed to be randomly time-varying which obeys certain mutually uncorrelated Bernoulli distributed white noise sequences. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) and employing an average-dwell time approach, a new set of criteria is derived for ensuring the robust exponential stability of the closed-loop switched system. More precisely, the Schur complement and Jensen's integral inequality are used in derivation of stabilisation criteria. By considering the relationship among the random time-varying delay and its lower and upper bounds, a new set of sufficient condition is established for the existence of reliable robust sampled-data control in terms of solution to linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, an illustrative example based on the F-18 aircraft model is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed design procedures.

Nonlinear control of linear parameter varying systems with applications to hypersonic vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilcox, Zachary Donald

The focus of this dissertation is to design a controller for linear parameter varying (LPV) systems, apply it specifically to air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, and examine the interplay between control performance and the structural dynamics design. Specifically a Lyapunov-based continuous robust controller is developed that yields exponential tracking of a reference model, despite the presence of bounded, nonvanishing disturbances. The hypersonic vehicle has time varying parameters, specifically temperature profiles, and its dynamics can be reduced to an LPV system with additive disturbances. Since the HSV can be modeled as an LPV system the proposed control design is directly applicable. The control performance is directly examined through simulations. A wide variety of applications exist that can be effectively modeled as LPV systems. In particular, flight systems have historically been modeled as LPV systems and associated control tools have been applied such as gain-scheduling, linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), linear fractional transformations (LFT), and mu-types. However, as the type of flight environments and trajectories become more demanding, the traditional LPV controllers may no longer be sufficient. In particular, hypersonic flight vehicles (HSVs) present an inherently difficult problem because of the nonlinear aerothermoelastic coupling effects in the dynamics. HSV flight conditions produce temperature variations that can alter both the structural dynamics and flight dynamics. Starting with the full nonlinear dynamics, the aerothermoelastic effects are modeled by a temperature dependent, parameter varying state-space representation with added disturbances. The model includes an uncertain parameter varying state matrix, an uncertain parameter varying non-square (column deficient) input matrix, and an additive bounded disturbance. In this dissertation, a robust dynamic controller is formulated for a uncertain and disturbed LPV system. The developed controller is then applied to a HSV model, and a Lyapunov analysis is used to prove global exponential reference model tracking in the presence of uncertainty in the state and input matrices and exogenous disturbances. Simulations with a spectrum of gains and temperature profiles on the full nonlinear dynamic model of the HSV is used to illustrate the performance and robustness of the developed controller. In addition, this work considers how the performance of the developed controller varies over a wide variety of control gains and temperature profiles and are optimized with respect to different performance metrics. Specifically, various temperature profile models and related nonlinear temperature dependent disturbances are used to characterize the relative control performance and effort for each model. Examining such metrics as a function of temperature provides a potential inroad to examine the interplay between structural/thermal protection design and control development and has application for future HSV design and control implementation.

The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control Systems: Generation II

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buschbacher, Mark; Bosworth, John

2006-01-01

The Second Generation (Gen II) control system for the F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) program implements direct adaptive neural networks to demonstrate robust tolerance to faults and failures. The direct adaptive tracking controller integrates learning neural networks (NNs) with a dynamic inversion control law. The term direct adaptive is used because the error between the reference model and the aircraft response is being compensated or directly adapted to minimize error without regard to knowing the cause of the error. No parameter estimation is needed for this direct adaptive control system. In the Gen II design, the feedback errors are regulated with a proportional-plus-integral (PI) compensator. This basic compensator is augmented with an online NN that changes the system gains via an error-based adaptation law to improve aircraft performance at all times, including normal flight, system failures, mispredicted behavior, or changes in behavior resulting from damage.

Modifying high-order aeroelastic math model of a jet transport using maximum likelihood estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anissipour, Amir A.; Benson, Russell A.

1989-01-01

The design of control laws to damp flexible structural modes requires accurate math models. Unlike the design of control laws for rigid body motion (e.g., where robust control is used to compensate for modeling inaccuracies), structural mode damping usually employs narrow band notch filters. In order to obtain the required accuracy in the math model, maximum likelihood estimation technique is employed to improve the accuracy of the math model using flight data. Presented here are all phases of this methodology: (1) pre-flight analysis (i.e., optimal input signal design for flight test, sensor location determination, model reduction technique, etc.), (2) data collection and preprocessing, and (3) post-flight analysis (i.e., estimation technique and model verification). In addition, a discussion is presented of the software tools used and the need for future study in this field.

X-38 Experimental Controls Laws

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Munday, Steve; Estes, Jay; Bordano, Aldo J.

2000-01-01

X-38 Experimental Control Laws X-38 is a NASA JSC/DFRC experimental flight test program developing a series of prototypes for an International Space Station (ISS) Crew Return Vehicle, often called an ISS "lifeboat." X- 38 Vehicle 132 Free Flight 3, currently scheduled for the end of this month, will be the first flight test of a modem FCS architecture called Multi-Application Control-Honeywell (MACH), originally developed by the Honeywell Technology Center. MACH wraps classical P&I outer attitude loops around a modem dynamic inversion attitude rate loop. The dynamic inversion process requires that the flight computer have an onboard aircraft model of expected vehicle dynamics based upon the aerodynamic database. Dynamic inversion is computationally intensive, so some timing modifications were made to implement MACH on the slower flight computers of the subsonic test vehicles. In addition to linear stability margin analyses and high fidelity 6-DOF simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing is used to verify the implementation of MACH and its robustness to aerodynamic and environmental uncertainties and disturbances.

Ares I Flight Control System Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jang, Jiann-Woei; Alaniz, Abran; Hall, Robert; Bedrossian, Nazareth; Hall, Charles; Ryan, Stephen; Jackson, Mark

2010-01-01

The Ares I launch vehicle represents a challenging flex-body structural environment for flight control system design. This paper presents a design methodology for employing numerical optimization to develop the Ares I flight control system. The design objectives include attitude tracking accuracy and robust stability with respect to rigid body dynamics, propellant slosh, and flex. Under the assumption that the Ares I time-varying dynamics and control system can be frozen over a short period of time, the flight controllers are designed to stabilize all selected frozen-time launch control systems in the presence of parametric uncertainty. Flex filters in the flight control system are designed to minimize the flex components in the error signals before they are sent to the attitude controller. To ensure adequate response to guidance command, step response specifications are introduced as constraints in the optimization problem. Imposing these constraints minimizes performance degradation caused by the addition of the flex filters. The first stage bending filter design achieves stability by adding lag to the first structural frequency to phase stabilize the first flex mode while gain stabilizing the higher modes. The upper stage bending filter design gain stabilizes all the flex bending modes. The flight control system designs provided here have been demonstrated to provide stable first and second stage control systems in both Draper Ares Stability Analysis Tool (ASAT) and the MSFC 6DOF nonlinear time domain simulation.

Low order H∞ optimal control for ACFA blended wing body aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haniš, T.; Kucera, V.; Hromčík, M.

2013-12-01

Advanced nonconvex nonsmooth optimization techniques for fixed-order H∞ robust control are proposed in this paper for design of flight control systems (FCS) with prescribed structure. Compared to classical techniques - tuning of and successive closures of particular single-input single-output (SISO) loops like dampers, attitude stabilizers, etc. - all loops are designed simultaneously by means of quite intuitive weighting filters selection. In contrast to standard optimization techniques, though (H2, H∞ optimization), the resulting controller respects the prescribed structure in terms of engaged channels and orders (e. g., proportional (P), proportional-integral (PI), and proportional-integralderivative (PID) controllers). In addition, robustness with regard to multimodel uncertainty is also addressed which is of most importance for aerospace applications as well. Such a way, robust controllers for various Mach numbers, altitudes, or mass cases can be obtained directly, based only on particular mathematical models for respective combinations of the §ight parameters.

Kinematic strategies for mitigating gust perturbations in insects.

PubMed

Vance, J T; Faruque, I; Humbert, J S

2013-03-01

Insects are attractive models for the development of micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) due to their relatively simple sensing, actuation and control architectures as compared to vertebrates, and because of their robust flight ability in dynamic and heterogeneous environments, characterized by turbulence and gusts of wind. How do insects respond to gust perturbations? We investigated this question by perturbing freely-flying honey bees and stalk-eye flies with low-pressure bursts of compressed air to simulate a wind gust. Body and wing kinematics were analyzed from flight sequences, recorded using three high-speed digital video cameras. Bees quickly responded to body rotations caused by gusts through bilateral asymmetry in stroke amplitude, whereas stalk-eye flies used a combination of asymmetric stroke amplitude and wing rotation angle. Both insects coordinated asymmetric and symmetric kinematics in response to gusts, which provides model strategies for simple yet robust flight characteristics for MAVs.

A variable-gain output feedback control design approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haylo, Nesim

1989-01-01

A multi-model design technique to find a variable-gain control law defined over the whole operating range is proposed. The design is formulated as an optimal control problem which minimizes a cost function weighing the performance at many operating points. The solution is obtained by embedding into the Multi-Configuration Control (MCC) problem, a multi-model robust control design technique. In contrast to conventional gain scheduling which uses a curve fit of single model designs, the optimal variable-gain control law stabilizes the plant at every operating point included in the design. An iterative algorithm to compute the optimal control gains is presented. The methodology has been successfully applied to reconfigurable aircraft flight control and to nonlinear flight control systems.

Bio-Inspired Integrated Sensing and Control Flapping Flight for Micro Aerial Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-02-28

Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, Chicago, IL, 2009, AIAA Paper 2009–6045. [56] B . Obradovic and K . Subbarao , “Modeling of dynamic loading of morphing...Robotics, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 244 – 255, 2010. 51 [32] W. He, S. S. Ge, B . V. E. How, Y. S. Choo, and K . S. Hong, “Robust adaptive boundary control of a...ABSTRACT 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON Soon-Jo Chung a. REPORT b . ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER

Improved Continuous-Time Higher Harmonic Control Using Hinfinity Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Frank H.

The helicopter is a versatile aircraft that can take-off and land vertically, hover efficiently, and maneuver in confined space. This versatility is enabled by the main rotor, which also causes undesired harmonic vibration during operation. This unwanted vibration has a negative impact on the practicality of the helicopter and also increases its operational cost. Passive control techniques have been applied to helicopter vibration suppression, but these methods are generally heavy and are not robust to changes in operating conditions. Feedback control offers the advantages of robustness and potentially higher performance over passive control techniques, and amongst the various feedback schemes, Shaw's higher harmonic control algorithm has been shown to be an effective method for attenuating harmonic disturbance in helicopters. In this thesis, the higher harmonic disturbance algorithm is further developed to achieve improved performance. One goal in this thesis is to determine the importance of periodicity in the helicopter rotor dynamics for control synthesis. Based on the analysis of wind tunnel data and simulation results, we conclude the helicopter rotor can be modeled reasonably well as linear and time-invariant for control design purposes. Modeling the helicopter rotor as linear time-invariant allows us to apply linear control theory concepts to the higher harmonic control problem. Another goal in this thesis is to find the limits of performance in harmonic disturbance rejection. To achieve this goal, we first define the metrics to measure the performance of the controller in terms of response speed and robustness to changes in the plant dynamics. The performance metrics are incorporated into an Hinfinity control problem. For a given plant, the resulting Hinfinity controller achieves the maximum performance, thus allowing us to identify the performance limitation in harmonic disturbance rejection. However, the Hinfinity controllers are of high order, and may have unstable poles, leading us to develop a design method to generate stable, fixed-order, and high performance controllers. Both the Hinfinity and the fixed-order controllers are designed for constant flight conditions. A gain-scheduled control law is used to reduce the vibration throughout the flight envelope. The gain-scheduling is accomplished by blending the outputs from fixed-order controllers designed for different flight conditions. The structure of the fixed-order controller allows the usage of a previously developed anti-windup scheme, and the blending function results in a bumpless full flight envelope control law. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - docs mit.edu)

Cost Estimation and Control for Flight Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hammond, Walter E.; Vanhook, Michael E. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Good program management practices, cost analysis, cost estimation, and cost control for aerospace flight systems are interrelated and depend upon each other. The best cost control process cannot overcome poor design or poor systems trades that lead to the wrong approach. The project needs robust Technical, Schedule, Cost, Risk, and Cost Risk practices before it can incorporate adequate Cost Control. Cost analysis both precedes and follows cost estimation -- the two are closely coupled with each other and with Risk analysis. Parametric cost estimating relationships and computerized models are most often used. NASA has learned some valuable lessons in controlling cost problems, and recommends use of a summary Project Manager's checklist as shown here.

Situational Awareness Issues in the Implementation of Datalink: Shared Situational Awareness in the Joint Flight Deck-ATC Aviation System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansman, Robert John, Jr.

1999-01-01

MIT has investigated Situational Awareness issues relating to the implementation of Datalink in the Air Traffic Control environment for a number of years under this grant activity. This work has investigated: 1) The Effect of "Party Line" Information. 2) The Effect of Datalink-Enabled Automated Flight Management Systems (FMS) on Flight Crew Situational Awareness. 3) The Effect of Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) on Situational Awareness During Close Parallel Approaches. 4) Analysis of Flight Path Management Functions in Current and Future ATM Environments. 5) Human Performance Models in Advanced ATC Automation: Flight Crew and Air Traffic Controllers. 6) CDTI of Datalink-Based Intent Information in Advanced ATC Environments. 7) Shared Situational Awareness between the Flight Deck and ATC in Datalink-Enabled Environments. 8) Analysis of Pilot and Controller Shared SA Requirements & Issues. 9) Development of Robust Scenario Generation and Distributed Simulation Techniques for Flight Deck ATC Simulation. 10) Methods of Testing Situation Awareness Using Testable Response Techniques. The work is detailed in specific technical reports that are listed in the following bibliography, and are attached as an appendix to the master final technical report.

Artificial Intelligence for Controlling Robotic Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krishnakumar, Kalmanje

2005-01-01

A document consisting mostly of lecture slides presents overviews of artificial-intelligence-based control methods now under development for application to robotic aircraft [called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the paper] and spacecraft and to the next generation of flight controllers for piloted aircraft. Following brief introductory remarks, the paper presents background information on intelligent control, including basic characteristics defining intelligent systems and intelligent control and the concept of levels of intelligent control. Next, the paper addresses several concepts in intelligent flight control. The document ends with some concluding remarks, including statements to the effect that (1) intelligent control architectures can guarantee stability of inner control loops and (2) for UAVs, intelligent control provides a robust way to accommodate an outer-loop control architecture for planning and/or related purposes.

An integrated guidance and control approach in three-dimensional space for hypersonic missile constrained by impact angles.

PubMed

Liu, Xiaodong; Huang, Wanwei; Du, Lifu

2017-01-01

A new robust three-dimensional integrated guidance and control (3D-IGC) approach is investigated for sliding-to-turn (STT) hypersonic missile, which encounters high uncertainties and strict impact angle constraints. First, a nonlinear state-space model with more generality is established facing to the design of 3D-IGC law. With regard to the as-built nonlinear system, a robust dynamic inversion control (RDIC) approach is proposed to overcome the robustness deficiency of traditional DIC, and then it is applied to construct the basic 3D-IGC law combining with backstepping method. In order to avoid the problems of "explosion of terms" and high-frequency chattering, an improved 3D-IGC law is further proposed by introducing dynamic surface control and continuous approximation approaches. From the computer simulation on a hypersonic missile, the proposed 3D-IGC law not only guarantees the stable flight, but also presents the precise control on terminal locations and impact angles. Moreover, it possesses smooth control output and strong robustness. Copyright © 2016 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Worst-Case Approach for On-Line Flutter Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, Rick C.; Brenner, Martin J.

1998-01-01

Worst-case flutter margins may be computed for a linear model with respect to a set of uncertainty operators using the structured singular value. This paper considers an on-line implementation to compute these robust margins in a flight test program. Uncertainty descriptions are updated at test points to account for unmodeled time-varying dynamics of the airplane by ensuring the robust model is not invalidated by measured flight data. Robust margins computed with respect to this uncertainty remain conservative to the changing dynamics throughout the flight. A simulation clearly demonstrates this method can improve the efficiency of flight testing by accurately predicting the flutter margin to improve safety while reducing the necessary flight time.

Multivariable control of a twin lift helicopter system using the LQG/LTR design methodology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rodriguez, A. A.; Athans, M.

1986-01-01

Guidelines for developing a multivariable centralized automatic flight control system (AFCS) for a twin lift helicopter system (TLHS) are presented. Singular value ideas are used to formulate performance and stability robustness specifications. A linear Quadratic Gaussian with Loop Transfer Recovery (LQG/LTR) design is obtained and evaluated.

Reliability Assessment for Low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freeman, Paul Michael

Existing low-cost unmanned aerospace systems are unreliable, and engineers must blend reliability analysis with fault-tolerant control in novel ways. This dissertation introduces the University of Minnesota unmanned aerial vehicle flight research platform, a comprehensive simulation and flight test facility for reliability and fault-tolerance research. An industry-standard reliability assessment technique, the failure modes and effects analysis, is performed for an unmanned aircraft. Particular attention is afforded to the control surface and servo-actuation subsystem. Maintaining effector health is essential for safe flight; failures may lead to loss of control incidents. Failure likelihood, severity, and risk are qualitatively assessed for several effector failure modes. Design changes are recommended to improve aircraft reliability based on this analysis. Most notably, the control surfaces are split, providing independent actuation and dual-redundancy. The simulation models for control surface aerodynamic effects are updated to reflect the split surfaces using a first-principles geometric analysis. The failure modes and effects analysis is extended by using a high-fidelity nonlinear aircraft simulation. A trim state discovery is performed to identify the achievable steady, wings-level flight envelope of the healthy and damaged vehicle. Tolerance of elevator actuator failures is studied using familiar tools from linear systems analysis. This analysis reveals significant inherent performance limitations for candidate adaptive/reconfigurable control algorithms used for the vehicle. Moreover, it demonstrates how these tools can be applied in a design feedback loop to make safety-critical unmanned systems more reliable. Control surface impairments that do occur must be quickly and accurately detected. This dissertation also considers fault detection and identification for an unmanned aerial vehicle using model-based and model-free approaches and applies those algorithms to experimental faulted and unfaulted flight test data. Flight tests are conducted with actuator faults that affect the plant input and sensor faults that affect the vehicle state measurements. A model-based detection strategy is designed and uses robust linear filtering methods to reject exogenous disturbances, e.g. wind, while providing robustness to model variation. A data-driven algorithm is developed to operate exclusively on raw flight test data without physical model knowledge. The fault detection and identification performance of these complementary but different methods is compared. Together, enhanced reliability assessment and multi-pronged fault detection and identification techniques can help to bring about the next generation of reliable low-cost unmanned aircraft.

Reusable Launch Vehicle Attitude Control Using a Time-Varying Sliding Mode Control Technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shtessel, Yuri B.; Zhu, J. Jim; Daniels, Dan; Jackson, Scott (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

In this paper we present a time-varying sliding mode control (TVSMC) technique for reusable launch vehicle (RLV) attitude control in ascent and entry flight phases. In ascent flight the guidance commands Euler roll, pitch and yaw angles, and in entry flight it commands the aerodynamic angles of bank, attack and sideslip. The controller employs a body rate inner loop and the attitude outer loop, which are separated in time-scale by the singular perturbation principle. The novelty of the TVSMC is that both the sliding surface and the boundary layer dynamics can be varied in real time using the PD-eigenvalue assignment technique. This salient feature is used to cope with control command saturation and integrator windup in the presence of severe disturbance or control effector failure, which enhances the robustness and fault tolerance of the controller. The TV-SMC ascent and descent designs are currently being tested with high fidelity, 6-DOF dispersion simulations. The test results will be presented in the final version of this paper.

The Penguin: a Low Reynolds Number Powered Glider for Station Keeping Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Costello, J. K.; Greene, D. W.; Lee, T. T.; Matier, P. T.; Mccarthy, T. R.; Mcguire, R. J.; Schuette, M. J.

1990-01-01

The Penguin is a low Reynolds number (approx. 100,000) remotely piloted vehicle (RPV). It was designed to fly three laps indoors around two pylons in a figure-eight course while maximizing loiter time. The Penguin's low Reynolds number mission is an important one currently being studied for possible future flights in the atmospheres of other planets and for specialized military missions. Although the Penguin's mission seemed quite simple at first, the challenges of such low Reynolds number flight have proven to be quite unique. In addition to the constraint of low Reynolds number flight, the aircraft had to be robust in its control, highly durable, and it had to carry a small instrument package. The Penguin's flight plan, concept, performance, aerodynamic design, weight estimation, structural design, propulsion, stability and control, and cost estimate is detailed.

Flight control and landing precision in the nocturnal bee Megalopta is robust to large changes in light intensity.

PubMed

Baird, Emily; Fernandez, Diana C; Wcislo, William T; Warrant, Eric J

2015-01-01

Like their diurnal relatives, Megalopta genalis use visual information to control flight. Unlike their diurnal relatives, however, they do this at extremely low light intensities. Although Megalopta has developed optical specializations to increase visual sensitivity, theoretical studies suggest that this enhanced sensitivity does not enable them to capture enough light to use visual information to reliably control flight in the rainforest at night. It has been proposed that Megalopta gain extra sensitivity by summing visual information over time. While enhancing the reliability of vision, this strategy would decrease the accuracy with which they can detect image motion-a crucial cue for flight control. Here, we test this temporal summation hypothesis by investigating how Megalopta's flight control and landing precision is affected by light intensity and compare our findings with the results of similar experiments performed on the diurnal bumblebee Bombus terrestris, to explore the extent to which Megalopta's adaptations to dim light affect their precision. We find that, unlike Bombus, light intensity does not affect flight and landing precision in Megalopta. Overall, we find little evidence that Megalopta uses a temporal summation strategy in dim light, while we find strong support for the use of this strategy in Bombus.

Flight control and landing precision in the nocturnal bee Megalopta is robust to large changes in light intensity

PubMed Central

Baird, Emily; Fernandez, Diana C.; Wcislo, William T.; Warrant, Eric J.

2015-01-01

Like their diurnal relatives, Megalopta genalis use visual information to control flight. Unlike their diurnal relatives, however, they do this at extremely low light intensities. Although Megalopta has developed optical specializations to increase visual sensitivity, theoretical studies suggest that this enhanced sensitivity does not enable them to capture enough light to use visual information to reliably control flight in the rainforest at night. It has been proposed that Megalopta gain extra sensitivity by summing visual information over time. While enhancing the reliability of vision, this strategy would decrease the accuracy with which they can detect image motion—a crucial cue for flight control. Here, we test this temporal summation hypothesis by investigating how Megalopta's flight control and landing precision is affected by light intensity and compare our findings with the results of similar experiments performed on the diurnal bumblebee Bombus terrestris, to explore the extent to which Megalopta's adaptations to dim light affect their precision. We find that, unlike Bombus, light intensity does not affect flight and landing precision in Megalopta. Overall, we find little evidence that Megalopta uses a temporal summation strategy in dim light, while we find strong support for the use of this strategy in Bombus. PMID:26578977

Aerodynamic robustness in owl-inspired leading-edge serrations: a computational wind-gust model.

PubMed

Rao, Chen; Liu, Hao

2018-06-08

Owls are a master to achieve silent flight in gliding and flapping flights under natural turbulent environments owing to their unique wing morphologies. While the leading-edge serrations are recently revealed, as a passive flow control micro-device, to play a crucial role in aerodynamic force production and sound suppression [25], the characteristics of wind-gust rejection associated with leading-edge serrations remain unclear. Here we address a large-eddy simulation (LES)-based study of aerodynamic robustness in owl-inspired leading-edge serrations, which is conducted with clean and serrated wing models through mimicking wind-gusts under a longitudinal fluctuation in free-stream inflow and a lateral fluctuation in pitch angle over a broad range of angles of attack (AoAs) over 0° ≤ Φ ≤ 20°. Our results show that the leading-edge serration-based passive flow control mechanisms associated with laminar-turbulent transition work effectively under fluctuated inflow and wing pitch, indicating that the leading-edge serrations are of potential gust fluctuation rejection or robustness in aerodynamic performance. Moreover, it is revealed that the tradeoff between turbulent flow control (i.e., aero-acoustic suppression) and force production in the serrated model holds independently to the wind-gust environments: poor at lower AoAs but capable of achieving equivalent aerodynamic performance at higher AoAs > 15o compared to the clean model. Our results reveal that the owl-inspired leading-edge serrations can be a robust micro-device for aero-acoustic control coping with unsteady and complex wind environments in biomimetic rotor designs for various fluid machineries. © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Model-based design and experimental verification of a monitoring concept for an active-active electromechanical aileron actuation system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arriola, David; Thielecke, Frank

2017-09-01

Electromechanical actuators have become a key technology for the onset of power-by-wire flight control systems in the next generation of commercial aircraft. The design of robust control and monitoring functions for these devices capable to mitigate the effects of safety-critical faults is essential in order to achieve the required level of fault tolerance. A primary flight control system comprising two electromechanical actuators nominally operating in active-active mode is considered. A set of five signal-based monitoring functions are designed using a detailed model of the system under consideration which includes non-linear parasitic effects, measurement and data acquisition effects, and actuator faults. Robust detection thresholds are determined based on the analysis of parametric and input uncertainties. The designed monitoring functions are verified experimentally and by simulation through the injection of faults in the validated model and in a test-rig suited to the actuation system under consideration, respectively. They guarantee a robust and efficient fault detection and isolation with a low risk of false alarms, additionally enabling the correct reconfiguration of the system for an enhanced operational availability. In 98% of the performed experiments and simulations, the correct faults were detected and confirmed within the time objectives set.

Direct Adaptive Aircraft Control Using Dynamic Cell Structure Neural Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jorgensen, Charles C.

1997-01-01

A Dynamic Cell Structure (DCS) Neural Network was developed which learns topology representing networks (TRNS) of F-15 aircraft aerodynamic stability and control derivatives. The network is integrated into a direct adaptive tracking controller. The combination produces a robust adaptive architecture capable of handling multiple accident and off- nominal flight scenarios. This paper describes the DCS network and modifications to the parameter estimation procedure. The work represents one step towards an integrated real-time reconfiguration control architecture for rapid prototyping of new aircraft designs. Performance was evaluated using three off-line benchmarks and on-line nonlinear Virtual Reality simulation. Flight control was evaluated under scenarios including differential stabilator lock, soft sensor failure, control and stability derivative variations, and air turbulence.

Flexible Wing Base Micro Aerial Vehicles: Vision-Guided Flight Stability and Autonomy for Micro Air Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ettinger, Scott M.; Nechyba, Michael C.; Ifju, Peter G.; Wazak, Martin

2002-01-01

Substantial progress has been made recently towards design building and test-flying remotely piloted Micro Air Vehicle's (MAVs). We seek to complement this progress in overcoming the aerodynamic obstacles to.flight at very small scales with a vision stability and autonomy system. The developed system based on a robust horizon detection algorithm which we discuss in greater detail in a companion paper. In this paper, we first motivate the use of computer vision for MAV autonomy arguing that given current sensor technology, vision may he the only practical approach to the problem. We then briefly review our statistical vision-based horizon detection algorithm, which has been demonstrated at 30Hz with over 99.9% correct horizon identification. Next we develop robust schemes for the detection of extreme MAV attitudes, where no horizon is visible, and for the detection of horizon estimation errors, due to external factors such as video transmission noise. Finally, we discuss our feed-back controller for self-stabilized flight, and report results on vision autonomous flights of duration exceeding ten minutes.

Boeing's variable geometry chevron: morphing aerospace structures for jet noise reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calkins, Frederick T.; Mabe, James H.; Butler, George W.

2006-03-01

Boeing is applying cutting edge smart material actuators to the next generation morphing technologies for aircraft. This effort has led to the Variable Geometry Chevrons (VGC), which utilize compact, light weight, and robust shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. These actuators morph the shape of chevrons on the trailing edge of a jet engine in order to optimize acoustic and performance objectives at multiple flight conditions. We have demonstrated a technical readiness level of 7 by successfully flight testing the VGCs on a Boeing 777-300ER with GE-115B engines. In this paper we describe the VGC design, development and performance during flight test. Autonomous operation of the VGCs, which did not require a control system or aircraft power, was demonstrated. A parametric study was conducted showing the influence of VGC configurations on shockcell generated cabin noise reduction during cruise. The VGC system provided a robust test vehicle to explore chevron configurations for community and shockcell noise reduction. Most importantly, the VGC concept demonstrated an exciting capability to optimize jet nozzle performance at multiple flight conditions.

Robust energy-absorbing compensators for the ACTEX II test article

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blaurock, Carl A.; Miller, David W.; Nye, Ted

1995-05-01

The paper addresses the problem of satellite solar panel vibration. A multi-layer vibration control scheme is investigated using a flight test article. Key issues in the active control portion are presented in the paper. The paper discusses the primary control design drivers, which are the time variations in modal frequencies due to configuration and thermal changes. A local control design approach is investigated, but found to be unworkable due to sensor/actuator non-collocation. An alternate design process uses linear robust control techniques, by describing the modal shifts as uncertainties. Multiple modal design, alpha- shifted multiple model, and a feedthrough compensation scheme are examined. Ground and simulation tests demonstrate that the resulting controllers provide significant vibration reduction in the presence of expected system variations.

Design and implementation of robust decentralized control laws for the ACES structure at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collins, Emmanuel G., Jr.; Phillips, Douglas; Hyland, David C.

1990-01-01

An experiment was conducted to design controllers that would provide substantial reduction of line-of-sight control errors. The satisfaction of this objective required the controllers to attenuate the beam vibration significantly. Particular emphasis was placed on controller simplicity (i.e., reduced-order and decentralized controller architectures). Complexity reduction in control law implementation is of paramount interest due to stringent limitations on throughput of even state-of-the-art space qualified processors. The results of this experiment successfully demonstrate active vibrator control for a flexible structure. The testbed is the ACES structure at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The ACES structure is dynamically traceable to future space systems and especially allows the study of line-of-sight control issues.

Robust Adaptive Flight Control Design of Air-breathing Hypersonic Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-07

dynamic inversion controller design for a non -minimum phase hypersonic vehicle is derived by Kuipers et al. [2008]. Moreover, integrated guidance and...stabilization time for inner loop variables is lesser than the intermediate loop variables because of the three-loop-control design methodology . The control...adaptive design . Control Engineering Practice, 2016. Michael A Bolender and David B Doman. A non -linear model for the longitudinal dynamics of a

A Multi-Sensor Fusion MAV State Estimation from Long-Range Stereo, IMU, GPS and Barometric Sensors.

PubMed

Song, Yu; Nuske, Stephen; Scherer, Sebastian

2016-12-22

State estimation is the most critical capability for MAV (Micro-Aerial Vehicle) localization, autonomous obstacle avoidance, robust flight control and 3D environmental mapping. There are three main challenges for MAV state estimation: (1) it can deal with aggressive 6 DOF (Degree Of Freedom) motion; (2) it should be robust to intermittent GPS (Global Positioning System) (even GPS-denied) situations; (3) it should work well both for low- and high-altitude flight. In this paper, we present a state estimation technique by fusing long-range stereo visual odometry, GPS, barometric and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) measurements. The new estimation system has two main parts, a stochastic cloning EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) estimator that loosely fuses both absolute state measurements (GPS, barometer) and the relative state measurements (IMU, visual odometry), and is derived and discussed in detail. A long-range stereo visual odometry is proposed for high-altitude MAV odometry calculation by using both multi-view stereo triangulation and a multi-view stereo inverse depth filter. The odometry takes the EKF information (IMU integral) for robust camera pose tracking and image feature matching, and the stereo odometry output serves as the relative measurements for the update of the state estimation. Experimental results on a benchmark dataset and our real flight dataset show the effectiveness of the proposed state estimation system, especially for the aggressive, intermittent GPS and high-altitude MAV flight.

Real-Time Flight Envelope Monitoring System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kerho, Michael; Bragg, Michael B.; Ansell, Phillip J.

2012-01-01

The objective of this effort was to show that real-time aircraft control-surface hinge-moment information could be used to provide a robust and reliable prediction of vehicle performance and control authority degradation. For a given airfoil section with a control surface -- be it a wing with an aileron, rudder, or elevator -- the control-surface hinge moment is sensitive to the aerodynamic characteristics of the section. As a result, changes in the aerodynamics of the section due to angle-of-attack or environmental effects such as icing, heavy rain, surface contaminants, bird strikes, or battle damage will affect the control surface hinge moment. These changes include both the magnitude of the hinge moment and its sign in a time-averaged sense, and the variation of the hinge moment with time. The current program attempts to take the real-time hinge moment information from the aircraft control surfaces and develop a system to predict aircraft envelope boundaries across a range of conditions, alerting the flight crew to reductions in aircraft controllability and flight boundaries.

Fault-tolerant nonlinear adaptive flight control using sliding mode online learning.

PubMed

Krüger, Thomas; Schnetter, Philipp; Placzek, Robin; Vörsmann, Peter

2012-08-01

An expanded nonlinear model inversion flight control strategy using sliding mode online learning for neural networks is presented. The proposed control strategy is implemented for a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS). This class of aircraft is very susceptible towards nonlinearities like atmospheric turbulence, model uncertainties and of course system failures. Therefore, these systems mark a sensible testbed to evaluate fault-tolerant, adaptive flight control strategies. Within this work the concept of feedback linearization is combined with feed forward neural networks to compensate for inversion errors and other nonlinear effects. Backpropagation-based adaption laws of the network weights are used for online training. Within these adaption laws the standard gradient descent backpropagation algorithm is augmented with the concept of sliding mode control (SMC). Implemented as a learning algorithm, this nonlinear control strategy treats the neural network as a controlled system and allows a stable, dynamic calculation of the learning rates. While considering the system's stability, this robust online learning method therefore offers a higher speed of convergence, especially in the presence of external disturbances. The SMC-based flight controller is tested and compared with the standard gradient descent backpropagation algorithm in the presence of system failures. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Descent Rate Control Approach to Developing an Autonomous Descent Vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fields, Travis D.

Circular parachutes have been used for aerial payload/personnel deliveries for over 100 years. In the past two decades, significant work has been done to improve the landing accuracies of cargo deliveries for humanitarian and military applications. This dissertation discusses the approach developed in which a circular parachute is used in conjunction with an electro-mechanical reefing system to manipulate the landing location. Rather than attempt to steer the autonomous descent vehicle directly, control of the landing location is accomplished by modifying the amount of time spent in a particular wind layer. Descent rate control is performed by reversibly reefing the parachute canopy. The first stage of the research investigated the use of a single actuation during descent (with periodic updates), in conjunction with a curvilinear target. Simulation results using real-world wind data are presented, illustrating the utility of the methodology developed. Additionally, hardware development and flight-testing of the single actuation autonomous descent vehicle are presented. The next phase of the research focuses on expanding the single actuation descent rate control methodology to incorporate a multi-actuation path-planning system. By modifying the parachute size throughout the descent, the controllability of the system greatly increases. The trajectory planning methodology developed provides a robust approach to accurately manipulate the landing location of the vehicle. The primary benefits of this system are the inherent robustness to release location errors and the ability to overcome vehicle uncertainties (mass, parachute size, etc.). A separate application of the path-planning methodology is also presented. An in-flight path-prediction system was developed for use in high-altitude ballooning by utilizing the path-planning methodology developed for descent vehicles. The developed onboard system improves landing location predictions in-flight using collected flight information during the ascent and descent. Simulation and real-world flight tests (using the developed low-cost hardware) demonstrate the significance of the improvements achievable when flying the developed system.

Microgravity Vibration Control and Civil Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whorton, Mark Stephen; Alhorn, Dean Carl

1998-01-01

Controlling vibration of structures is essential for both space structures as well as terrestrial structures. Due to the ambient acceleration levels anticipated for the International Space Station, active vibration isolation is required to provide a quiescent acceleration environment for many science experiments. An overview is given of systems developed and flight tested in orbit for microgravity vibration isolation. Technology developed for vibration control of flexible space structures may also be applied to control of terrestrial structures such as buildings and bridges subject to wind loading or earthquake excitation. Recent developments in modern robust control for flexible space structures are shown to provide good structural vibration control while maintaining robustness to model uncertainties. Results of a mixed H-2/H-infinity control design are provided for a benchmark problem in structural control for earthquake resistant buildings.

On decentralized adaptive full-order sliding mode control of multiple UAVs.

PubMed

Xiang, Xianbo; Liu, Chao; Su, Housheng; Zhang, Qin

2017-11-01

In this study, a novel decentralized adaptive full-order sliding mode control framework is proposed for the robust synchronized formation motion of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) subject to system uncertainty. First, a full-order sliding mode surface in a decentralized manner is designed to incorporate both the individual position tracking error and the synchronized formation error while the UAV group is engaged in building a certain desired geometric pattern in three dimensional space. Second, a decentralized virtual plant controller is constructed which allows the embedded low-pass filter to attain the chattering free property of the sliding mode controller. In addition, robust adaptive technique is integrated in the decentralized chattering free sliding control design in order to handle unknown bounded uncertainties, without requirements for assuming a priori knowledge of bounds on the system uncertainties as stated in conventional chattering free control methods. Subsequently, system robustness as well as stability of the decentralized full-order sliding mode control of multiple UAVs is synthesized. Numerical simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control framework to achieve robust 3D formation flight of the multi-UAV system. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a Hopper Spacecraft Simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mucasey, Evan Phillip Krell

A robust test bed is needed to facilitate future development of guidance, navigation, and control software for future vehicles capable of vertical takeoff and landings. Specifically, this work aims to develop both a hardware and software simulator that can be used for future flight software development for extra-planetary vehicles. To achieve the program requirements of a high thrust to weight ratio with large payload capability, the vehicle is designed to have a novel combination of electric motors and a micro jet engine is used to act as the propulsion elements. The spacecraft simulator underwent several iterations of hardware development using different materials and fabrication methods. The final design used a combination of carbon fiber and fiberglass that was cured under vacuum to serve as the frame of the vehicle which provided a strong, lightweight platform for all flight components and future payloads. The vehicle also uses an open source software development platform, Arduino, to serve as the initial flight computer and has onboard accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers to sense the vehicles attitude. To prevent instability due to noise, a polynomial kalman filter was designed and this fed the sensed angles and rates into a robust attitude controller which autonomously control the vehicle' s yaw, pitch, and roll angles. In addition to the hardware development of the vehicle itself, both a software simulation and a real time data acquisition interface was written in MATLAB/SIMULINK so that real flight data could be taken and then correlated to the simulation to prove the accuracy of the analytical model. In result, the full scale vehicle was designed and own outside of the lab environment and data showed that the software model accurately predicted the flight dynamics of the vehicle.

Adaptive Wing Camber Optimization: A Periodic Perturbation Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Espana, Martin; Gilyard, Glenn

1994-01-01

Available redundancy among aircraft control surfaces allows for effective wing camber modifications. As shown in the past, this fact can be used to improve aircraft performance. To date, however, algorithm developments for in-flight camber optimization have been limited. This paper presents a perturbational approach for cruise optimization through in-flight camber adaptation. The method uses, as a performance index, an indirect measurement of the instantaneous net thrust. As such, the actual performance improvement comes from the integrated effects of airframe and engine. The algorithm, whose design and robustness properties are discussed, is demonstrated on the NASA Dryden B-720 flight simulator.

Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) Prototype Radio - Generation 2 Security Flight Test Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iannicca, Dennis C.; Ishac, Joseph A.; Shalkhauser, Kurt A.

2015-01-01

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), in cooperation with Rockwell Collins, is working to develop a prototype Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) radio platform as part of NASA Integrated Systems Research Program's (ISRP) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) project. A primary focus of the project is to work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and industry standards bodies to build and demonstrate a safe, secure, and efficient CNPC architecture that can be used by industry to evaluate the feasibility of deploying a system using these technologies in an operational capacity. GRC has been working in conjunction with these groups to assess threats, identify security requirements, and to develop a system of standards-based security controls that can be applied to the GRC prototype CNPC architecture as a demonstration platform. The proposed security controls were integrated into the GRC flight test system aboard our S-3B Viking surrogate aircraft and several network tests were conducted during a flight on November 15th, 2014 to determine whether the controls were working properly within the flight environment. The flight test was also the first to integrate Robust Header Compression (ROHC) as a means of reducing the additional overhead introduced by the security controls and Mobile IPv6. The effort demonstrated the complete end-to-end secure CNPC link in a relevant flight environment.

A parameter optimization approach to controller partitioning for integrated flight/propulsion control application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, Phillip; Garg, Sanjay; Holowecky, Brian

1992-01-01

A parameter optimization framework is presented to solve the problem of partitioning a centralized controller into a decentralized hierarchical structure suitable for integrated flight/propulsion control implementation. The controller partitioning problem is briefly discussed and a cost function to be minimized is formulated, such that the resulting 'optimal' partitioned subsystem controllers will closely match the performance (including robustness) properties of the closed-loop system with the centralized controller while maintaining the desired controller partitioning structure. The cost function is written in terms of parameters in a state-space representation of the partitioned sub-controllers. Analytical expressions are obtained for the gradient of this cost function with respect to parameters, and an optimization algorithm is developed using modern computer-aided control design and analysis software. The capabilities of the algorithm are demonstrated by application to partitioned integrated flight/propulsion control design for a modern fighter aircraft in the short approach to landing task. The partitioning optimization is shown to lead to reduced-order subcontrollers that match the closed-loop command tracking and decoupling performance achieved by a high-order centralized controller.

A parameter optimization approach to controller partitioning for integrated flight/propulsion control application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, Phillip H.; Garg, Sanjay; Holowecky, Brian R.

1993-01-01

A parameter optimization framework is presented to solve the problem of partitioning a centralized controller into a decentralized hierarchical structure suitable for integrated flight/propulsion control implementation. The controller partitioning problem is briefly discussed and a cost function to be minimized is formulated, such that the resulting 'optimal' partitioned subsystem controllers will closely match the performance (including robustness) properties of the closed-loop system with the centralized controller while maintaining the desired controller partitioning structure. The cost function is written in terms of parameters in a state-space representation of the partitioned sub-controllers. Analytical expressions are obtained for the gradient of this cost function with respect to parameters, and an optimization algorithm is developed using modern computer-aided control design and analysis software. The capabilities of the algorithm are demonstrated by application to partitioned integrated flight/propulsion control design for a modern fighter aircraft in the short approach to landing task. The partitioning optimization is shown to lead to reduced-order subcontrollers that match the closed-loop command tracking and decoupling performance achieved by a high-order centralized controller.

Adaptive Controller Effects on Pilot Behavior

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trujillo, Anna C.; Gregory, Irene M.; Hempley, Lucas E.

2014-01-01

Adaptive control provides robustness and resilience for highly uncertain, and potentially unpredictable, flight dynamics characteristic. Some of the recent flight experiences of pilot-in-the-loop with an adaptive controller have exhibited unpredicted interactions. In retrospect, this is not surprising once it is realized that there are now two adaptive controllers interacting, the software adaptive control system and the pilot. An experiment was conducted to categorize these interactions on the pilot with an adaptive controller during control surface failures. One of the objectives of this experiment was to determine how the adaptation time of the controller affects pilots. The pitch and roll errors, and stick input increased for increasing adaptation time and during the segment when the adaptive controller was adapting. Not surprisingly, altitude, cross track and angle deviations, and vertical velocity also increase during the failure and then slowly return to pre-failure levels. Subjects may change their behavior even as an adaptive controller is adapting with additional stick inputs. Therefore, the adaptive controller should adapt as fast as possible to minimize flight track errors. This will minimize undesirable interactions between the pilot and the adaptive controller and maintain maneuvering precision.

Reconfigurable Flight Control Designs With Application to the X-33 Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burken, John J.; Lu, Ping; Wu, Zhenglu

1999-01-01

Two methods for control system reconfiguration have been investigated. The first method is a robust servomechanism control approach (optimal tracking problem) that is a generalization of the classical proportional-plus-integral control to multiple input-multiple output systems. The second method is a control-allocation approach based on a quadratic programming formulation. A globally convergent fixed-point iteration algorithm has been developed to make onboard implementation of this method feasible. These methods have been applied to reconfigurable entry flight control design for the X-33 vehicle. Examples presented demonstrate simultaneous tracking of angle-of-attack and roll angle commands during failures of the right body flap actuator. Although simulations demonstrate success of the first method in most cases, the control-allocation method appears to provide uniformly better performance in all cases.

Compensation of significant parametric uncertainties using sliding mode online learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnetter, Philipp; Kruger, Thomas

An augmented nonlinear inverse dynamics (NID) flight control strategy using sliding mode online learning for a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is presented. Because parameter identification for this class of aircraft often is not valid throughout the complete flight envelope, aerodynamic parameters used for model based control strategies may show significant deviations. For the concept of feedback linearization this leads to inversion errors that in combination with the distinctive susceptibility of small UAS towards atmospheric turbulence pose a demanding control task for these systems. In this work an adaptive flight control strategy using feedforward neural networks for counteracting such nonlinear effects is augmented with the concept of sliding mode control (SMC). SMC-learning is derived from variable structure theory. It considers a neural network and its training as a control problem. It is shown that by the dynamic calculation of the learning rates, stability can be guaranteed and thus increase the robustness against external disturbances and system failures. With the resulting higher speed of convergence a wide range of simultaneously occurring disturbances can be compensated. The SMC-based flight controller is tested and compared to the standard gradient descent (GD) backpropagation algorithm under the influence of significant model uncertainties and system failures.

A Program in Air Transportation Technology (Joint University Program)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1996-01-01

The Joint University Program on Air Transportation Technology was conducted at Princeton University from 1971 to 1995. Our vision was to further understanding of the design and operation of transport aircraft, of the effects of atmospheric environment on aircraft flight, and of the development and utilization of the National Airspace System. As an adjunct, the program emphasized the independent research of both graduate and undergraduate students. Recent principal goals were to develop and verify new methods for design and analysis of intelligent flight control systems, aircraft guidance logic for recovery from wake vortex encounter, and robust flight control systems. Our research scope subsumed problems associated with multidisciplinary aircraft design synthesis and analysis based on flight physics, providing a theoretical basis for developing innovative control concepts that enhance aircraft performance and safety. Our research focus was of direct interest not only to NASA but to manufacturers of aircraft and their associated systems. Our approach, metrics, and future directions described in the remainder of the report.

Design of a Model Reference Adaptive Controller for an Unmanned Air Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crespo, Luis G.; Matsutani, Megumi; Annaswamy, Anuradha M.

2010-01-01

This paper presents the "Adaptive Control Technology for Safe Flight (ACTS)" architecture, which consists of a non-adaptive controller that provides satisfactory performance under nominal flying conditions, and an adaptive controller that provides robustness under off nominal ones. The design and implementation procedures of both controllers are presented. The aim of these procedures, which encompass both theoretical and practical considerations, is to develop a controller suitable for flight. The ACTS architecture is applied to the Generic Transport Model developed by NASA-Langley Research Center. The GTM is a dynamically scaled test model of a transport aircraft for which a flight-test article and a high-fidelity simulation are available. The nominal controller at the core of the ACTS architecture has a multivariable LQR-PI structure while the adaptive one has a direct, model reference structure. The main control surfaces as well as the throttles are used as control inputs. The inclusion of the latter alleviates the pilot s workload by eliminating the need for cancelling the pitch coupling generated by changes in thrust. Furthermore, the independent usage of the throttles by the adaptive controller enables their use for attitude control. Advantages and potential drawbacks of adaptation are demonstrated by performing high fidelity simulations of a flight-validated controller and of its adaptive augmentation.

Robust Control Design for Flight Control

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-07-01

controller may be designed to produce desired responses to pilot commands, responses to external (atmospheric) disturbances may be unusual and...suggested for stabilizing open loop unstable aircraft result in nonminimum phase zeros in the dynamics as seen by the pilot . This issue has not been...stability test it does retain several essential features of the popular single loop test developed by Nyquist. In particular, it identifies a Nyquist

Design of a candidate flutter suppression control law for DAST ARW-2. [Drones for Aerodynamic and Structural Testing Aeroelastic Research Wing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, W. M., Jr.; Tiffany, S. H.

1983-01-01

A control law is developed to suppress symmetric flutter for a mathematical model of an aeroelastic research vehicle. An implementable control law is attained by including modified LQG (linear quadratic Gaussian) design techniques, controller order reduction, and gain scheduling. An alternate (complementary) design approach is illustrated for one flight condition wherein nongradient-based constrained optimization techniques are applied to maximize controller robustness.

2nd Generation QUATARA Flight Computer Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Falker, Jay; Keys, Andrew; Fraticelli, Jose Molina; Capo-Iugo, Pedro; Peeples, Steven

2015-01-01

Single core flight computer boards have been designed, developed, and tested (DD&T) to be flown in small satellites for the last few years. In this project, a prototype flight computer will be designed as a distributed multi-core system containing four microprocessors running code in parallel. This flight computer will be capable of performing multiple computationally intensive tasks such as processing digital and/or analog data, controlling actuator systems, managing cameras, operating robotic manipulators and transmitting/receiving from/to a ground station. In addition, this flight computer will be designed to be fault tolerant by creating both a robust physical hardware connection and by using a software voting scheme to determine the processor's performance. This voting scheme will leverage on the work done for the Space Launch System (SLS) flight software. The prototype flight computer will be constructed with Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components which are estimated to survive for two years in a low-Earth orbit.

A stochastic optimal feedforward and feedback control methodology for superagility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halyo, Nesim; Direskeneli, Haldun; Taylor, Deborah B.

1992-01-01

A new control design methodology is developed: Stochastic Optimal Feedforward and Feedback Technology (SOFFT). Traditional design techniques optimize a single cost function (which expresses the design objectives) to obtain both the feedforward and feedback control laws. This approach places conflicting demands on the control law such as fast tracking versus noise atttenuation/disturbance rejection. In the SOFFT approach, two cost functions are defined. The feedforward control law is designed to optimize one cost function, the feedback optimizes the other. By separating the design objectives and decoupling the feedforward and feedback design processes, both objectives can be achieved fully. A new measure of command tracking performance, Z-plots, is also developed. By analyzing these plots at off-nominal conditions, the sensitivity or robustness of the system in tracking commands can be predicted. Z-plots provide an important tool for designing robust control systems. The Variable-Gain SOFFT methodology was used to design a flight control system for the F/A-18 aircraft. It is shown that SOFFT can be used to expand the operating regime and provide greater performance (flying/handling qualities) throughout the extended flight regime. This work was performed under the NASA SBIR program. ICS plans to market the software developed as a new module in its commercial CACSD software package: ACET.

On-Line Safe Flight Envelope Determination for Impaired Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lombaerts, Thomas; Schuet, Stefan; Acosta, Diana; Kaneshige, John

2015-01-01

The design and simulation of an on-line algorithm which estimates the safe maneuvering envelope of aircraft is discussed in this paper. The trim envelope is estimated using probabilistic methods and efficient high-fidelity model based computations of attainable equilibrium sets. From this trim envelope, a robust reachability analysis provides the maneuverability limitations of the aircraft through an optimal control formulation. Both envelope limits are presented to the flight crew on the primary flight display. In the results section, scenarios are considered where this adaptive algorithm is capable of computing online changes to the maneuvering envelope due to impairment. Furthermore, corresponding updates to display features on the primary flight display are provided to potentially inform the flight crew of safety critical envelope alterations caused by the impairment.

Application of controller partitioning optimization procedure to integrated flight/propulsion control design for a STOVL aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garg, Sanjay; Schmidt, Phillip H.

1993-01-01

A parameter optimization framework has earlier been developed to solve the problem of partitioning a centralized controller into a decentralized, hierarchical structure suitable for integrated flight/propulsion control implementation. This paper presents results from the application of the controller partitioning optimization procedure to IFPC design for a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft in transition flight. The controller partitioning problem and the parameter optimization algorithm are briefly described. Insight is provided into choosing various 'user' selected parameters in the optimization cost function such that the resulting optimized subcontrollers will meet the characteristics of the centralized controller that are crucial to achieving the desired closed-loop performance and robustness, while maintaining the desired subcontroller structure constraints that are crucial for IFPC implementation. The optimization procedure is shown to improve upon the initial partitioned subcontrollers and lead to performance comparable to that achieved with the centralized controller. This application also provides insight into the issues that should be addressed at the centralized control design level in order to obtain implementable partitioned subcontrollers.

The X-43A Six Degree of Freedom Monte Carlo Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baumann, Ethan; Bahm, Catherine; Strovers, Brian; Beck, Roger

2008-01-01

This report provides an overview of the Hyper-X research vehicle Monte Carlo analysis conducted with the six-degree-of-freedom simulation. The methodology and model uncertainties used for the Monte Carlo analysis are presented as permitted. In addition, the process used to select hardware validation test cases from the Monte Carlo data is described. The preflight Monte Carlo analysis indicated that the X-43A control system was robust to the preflight uncertainties and provided the Hyper-X project an important indication that the vehicle would likely be successful in accomplishing the mission objectives. The X-43A inflight performance is compared to the preflight Monte Carlo predictions and shown to exceed the Monte Carlo bounds in several instances. Possible modeling shortfalls are presented that may account for these discrepancies. The flight control laws and guidance algorithms were robust enough as a result of the preflight Monte Carlo analysis that the unexpected in-flight performance did not have undue consequences. Modeling and Monte Carlo analysis lessons learned are presented.

Threat of death and autobiographical memory: a study of passengers from Flight AT236.

PubMed

McKinnon, Margaret C; Palombo, Daniela J; Nazarov, Anthony; Kumar, Namita; Khuu, Wayne; Levine, Brian

2015-06-01

We investigated autobiographical memory in a group of passengers onboard a trans-Atlantic flight that nearly ditched at sea. The consistency of traumatic exposure across passengers, some of whom developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), provided a unique opportunity to assess verified memory for life-threatening trauma. Using the Autobiographical Interview, which separates episodic from non-episodic details, passengers and healthy controls (HCs) recalled three events: the airline disaster (or a highly negative event for HCs), the September 11, 2001 attacks, and a non-emotional event. All passengers showed robust mnemonic enhancement for episodic details of the airline disaster. Although neither richness nor accuracy of traumatic recollection was related to PTSD, production of non-episodic details for traumatic and non-traumatic events was elevated in PTSD passengers. These findings indicate a robust mnemonic enhancement for trauma that is not specific to PTSD. Rather, PTSD is associated with altered cognitive control operations that affect autobiographical memory in general.

Wavelet Filtering to Reduce Conservatism in Aeroservoelastic Robust Stability Margins

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brenner, Marty; Lind, Rick

1998-01-01

Wavelet analysis for filtering and system identification was used to improve the estimation of aeroservoelastic stability margins. The conservatism of the robust stability margins was reduced with parametric and nonparametric time-frequency analysis of flight data in the model validation process. Nonparametric wavelet processing of data was used to reduce the effects of external desirableness and unmodeled dynamics. Parametric estimates of modal stability were also extracted using the wavelet transform. Computation of robust stability margins for stability boundary prediction depends on uncertainty descriptions derived from the data for model validation. F-18 high Alpha Research Vehicle aeroservoelastic flight test data demonstrated improved robust stability prediction by extension of the stability boundary beyond the flight regime.

State Estimation of Main Rotor Flap and Lead-Lag Using Accelerometers and Laser Transducers on the RASCAL UH-60 Helicopter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fletcher, Jay W.; Chen, Robert T. N.; Strasilla, Eric; Aiken, Edwin W. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

Modern rotorcraft flight control system designs which promise to yield high vehicle response bandwidth and good gust rejection can benefit from the use of rotor-state feedbacks. The measurement of main rotor blade motions is also desirable to validate and improve rotorcraft simulation models, to identify high-order linear flight dynamics models, to provide rotor system health monitoring; during flight test, and to provide for correlation with acoustic measurements from wind tunnel and flight tests. However, few attempts have been made to instrument a flight vehicle in this manner, and no previous system has had the robustness and accuracy required for these diverse applications. A rotor blade motion measurement and estimation system has been developed by NASA and the U.S. Army for use on the Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) helicopter. RASCAL is a UH-60 Blackhawk which is being modified at Ames Research Center in a phased development program for use in flight dynamics and controls, navigation, airspace management, and rotorcraft human factors research. The aircraft will feature a full-authority, digital, fly-by-wire research flight control system; a coupled ring laser gyro, differential GPS based navigation system; a stereoscopic color wide field of view helmet, mounted display; programmable panel mounted displays; and advanced navigation sensors. The rotor blade motion system is currently installed for data acquisition only, but will be integrated with the research flight control system when it is installed later this year.

On-Line Robust Modal Stability Prediction using Wavelet Processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brenner, Martin J.; Lind, Rick

1998-01-01

Wavelet analysis for filtering and system identification has been used to improve the estimation of aeroservoelastic stability margins. The conservatism of the robust stability margins is reduced with parametric and nonparametric time- frequency analysis of flight data in the model validation process. Nonparametric wavelet processing of data is used to reduce the effects of external disturbances and unmodeled dynamics. Parametric estimates of modal stability are also extracted using the wavelet transform. Computation of robust stability margins for stability boundary prediction depends on uncertainty descriptions derived from the data for model validation. The F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle aeroservoelastic flight test data demonstrates improved robust stability prediction by extension of the stability boundary beyond the flight regime. Guidelines and computation times are presented to show the efficiency and practical aspects of these procedures for on-line implementation. Feasibility of the method is shown for processing flight data from time- varying nonstationary test points.

A Multi-Sensor Fusion MAV State Estimation from Long-Range Stereo, IMU, GPS and Barometric Sensors

PubMed Central

Song, Yu; Nuske, Stephen; Scherer, Sebastian

2016-01-01

State estimation is the most critical capability for MAV (Micro-Aerial Vehicle) localization, autonomous obstacle avoidance, robust flight control and 3D environmental mapping. There are three main challenges for MAV state estimation: (1) it can deal with aggressive 6 DOF (Degree Of Freedom) motion; (2) it should be robust to intermittent GPS (Global Positioning System) (even GPS-denied) situations; (3) it should work well both for low- and high-altitude flight. In this paper, we present a state estimation technique by fusing long-range stereo visual odometry, GPS, barometric and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) measurements. The new estimation system has two main parts, a stochastic cloning EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) estimator that loosely fuses both absolute state measurements (GPS, barometer) and the relative state measurements (IMU, visual odometry), and is derived and discussed in detail. A long-range stereo visual odometry is proposed for high-altitude MAV odometry calculation by using both multi-view stereo triangulation and a multi-view stereo inverse depth filter. The odometry takes the EKF information (IMU integral) for robust camera pose tracking and image feature matching, and the stereo odometry output serves as the relative measurements for the update of the state estimation. Experimental results on a benchmark dataset and our real flight dataset show the effectiveness of the proposed state estimation system, especially for the aggressive, intermittent GPS and high-altitude MAV flight. PMID:28025524

Pilot Evaluation of Adaptive Control in Motion-Based Flight Simulator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaneshige, John T.; Campbell, Stefan Forrest

2009-01-01

The objective of this work is to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and robustness characteristics of several MRAC (Model-Reference Adaptive Control) based adaptive control technologies garnering interest from the community as a whole. To facilitate this, a control study using piloted and unpiloted simulations to evaluate sensitivities and handling qualities was conducted. The adaptive control technologies under consideration were ALR (Adaptive Loop Recovery), BLS (Bounded Linear Stability), Hybrid Adaptive Control, L1, OCM (Optimal Control Modification), PMRAC (Predictor-based MRAC), and traditional MRAC

Robust, Flexible Motion Control for the Mars Explorer Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maimone, Mark; Biesiadecki, Jeffrey

2007-01-01

The Mobility Flight Software, running on computers aboard the Mars Explorer Rover (MER) robotic vehicles Spirit and Opportunity, affords the robustness and flexibility of control to enable safe and effective operation of these vehicles in traversing natural terrain. It can make the vehicles perform specific maneuvers commanded from Earth, and/or can autonomously administer multiple aspects of mobility, including choice of motion, measurement of actual motion, and even selection of targets to be approached. Motion of a vehicle can be commanded by use of multiple layers of control, ranging from motor control at a low level, direct drive operations (e.g., motion along a circular arc, motion along a straight line, or turn in place) at an intermediate level to goal-position driving (that is, driving to a specified location) at a high level. The software can also perform high-level assessment of terrain and selection of safe paths across the terrain: this involves processing of the digital equivalent of a local traversability map generated from images acquired by stereoscopic pairs of cameras aboard the vehicles. Other functions of the software include interacting with the rest of the MER flight software and performing safety checks.

Robust Feedback Control of Reconfigurable Multi-Agent Systems in Uncertain Adversarial Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-07-09

R. G., Optimal Lunar Landing and Retargeting using a Hybrid Control Strategy. Proceedings of the 2013 AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (AAS...Furfaro, R. & Sanfelice, R. G., Switching System Model for Pinpoint Lunar Landing Guidance Using a Hybrid Control Strategy. Proceedings of the AIAA...methods in distributed settings and the design of numerical methods to properly compute their trajectories . We have generate results showing that

Orbit control of a stratospheric satellite with parameter uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Ming; Huo, Wei

2016-12-01

When a stratospheric satellite travels by prevailing winds in the stratosphere, its cross-track displacement needs to be controlled to keep a constant latitude orbital flight. To design the orbit control system, a 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) model of the satellite is established based on the second Lagrangian formulation, it is proven that the input/output feedback linearization theory cannot be directly implemented for the orbit control with this model, thus three subsystem models are deduced from the 6-DOF model to develop a sequential nonlinear control strategy. The control strategy includes an adaptive controller for the balloon-tether subsystem with uncertain balloon parameters, a PD controller based on feedback linearization for the tether-sail subsystem, and a sliding mode controller for the sail-rudder subsystem with uncertain sail parameters. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed control strategy is robust to uncertainties and satisfies high precision requirements for the orbit flight of the satellite.

Set-membership fault detection under noisy environment with application to the detection of abnormal aircraft control surface positions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El Houda Thabet, Rihab; Combastel, Christophe; Raïssi, Tarek; Zolghadri, Ali

2015-09-01

The paper develops a set membership detection methodology which is applied to the detection of abnormal positions of aircraft control surfaces. Robust and early detection of such abnormal positions is an important issue for early system reconfiguration and overall optimisation of aircraft design. In order to improve fault sensitivity while ensuring a high level of robustness, the method combines a data-driven characterisation of noise and a model-driven approach based on interval prediction. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is illustrated through simulation results obtained based on data recorded in several flight scenarios of a highly representative aircraft benchmark.

Neural integration underlying a time-compensated sun compass in the migratory monarch butterfly

PubMed Central

Shlizerman, Eli; Phillips-Portillo, James; Reppert, Steven M.

2016-01-01

Migrating Eastern North American monarch butterflies use a time-compensated sun compass to adjust their flight to the southwest direction. While the antennal genetic circadian clock and the azimuth of the sun are instrumental for proper function of the compass, it is unclear how these signals are represented on a neuronal level and how they are integrated to produce flight control. To address these questions, we constructed a receptive field model of the compound eye that encodes the solar azimuth. We then derived a neural circuit model, which integrates azimuthal and circadian signals to correct flight direction. The model demonstrates an integration mechanism, which produces robust trajectories reaching the southwest regardless of the time of day and includes a configuration for remigration. Comparison of model simulations with flight trajectories of butterflies in a flight simulator shows analogous behaviors and affirms the prediction that midday is the optimal time for migratory flight. PMID:27149852

Robust decentralized control laws for the ACES structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collins, Emmanuel G., Jr.; Phillips, Douglas J.; Hyland, David C.

1991-01-01

Control system design for the Active Control Technique Evaluation for Spacecraft (ACES) structure at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is discussed. The primary objective of this experiment is to design controllers that provide substantial reduction of the line-of-sight pointing errors. Satisfaction of this objective requires the controllers to attenuate beam vibration significantly. The primary method chosen for control design is the optimal projection approach for uncertain systems (OPUS). The OPUS design process allows the simultaneous tradeoff of five fundamental issues in control design: actuator sizing, sensor accuracy, controller order, robustness, and system performance. A brief description of the basic ACES configuration is given. The development of the models used for control design and control design for eight system loops that were selected by analysis of test data collected from the structure are discussed. Experimental results showing that very significant performance improvement is achieved when all eight feedback loops are closed are presented.

Capability Description for NASA's F/A-18 TN 853 as a Testbed for the Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, Curt

2009-01-01

The NASA F/A-18 tail number (TN) 853 full-scale Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control (IRAC) testbed has been designed with a full array of capabilities in support of the Aviation Safety Program. Highlights of the system's capabilities include: 1) a quad-redundant research flight control system for safely interfacing controls experiments to the aircraft's control surfaces; 2) a dual-redundant airborne research test system for hosting multi-disciplinary state-of-the-art adaptive control experiments; 3) a robust reversionary configuration for recovery from unusual attitudes and configurations; 4) significant research instrumentation, particularly in the area of static loads; 5) extensive facilities for experiment simulation, data logging, real-time monitoring and post-flight analysis capabilities; and 6) significant growth capability in terms of interfaces and processing power.

Morpheus Lander Roll Control System and Wind Modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gambone, Elisabeth A.

2014-01-01

The Morpheus prototype lander is a testbed capable of vertical takeoff and landing developed by NASA Johnson Space Center to assess advanced space technologies. Morpheus completed a series of flight tests at Kennedy Space Center to demonstrate autonomous landing and hazard avoidance for future exploration missions. As a prototype vehicle being tested in Earth's atmosphere, Morpheus requires a robust roll control system to counteract aerodynamic forces. This paper describes the control algorithm designed that commands jet firing and delay times based on roll orientation. Design, analysis, and testing are supported using a high fidelity, 6 degree-of-freedom simulation of vehicle dynamics. This paper also details the wind profiles generated using historical wind data, which are necessary to validate the roll control system in the simulation environment. In preparation for Morpheus testing, the wind model was expanded to create day-of-flight wind profiles based on data delivered by Kennedy Space Center. After the test campaign, a comparison of flight and simulation performance was completed to provide additional model validation.

Full Scale Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST): Capabilities and Recent Flight Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, Christopher

2014-01-01

At the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center research is being conducted into flight control technologies that will enable the next generation of air and space vehicles. The Full Scale Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST) aircraft provides a laboratory for flight exploration of these technologies. In recent years novel but simple adaptive architectures for aircraft and rockets have been researched along with control technologies for improving aircraft fuel efficiency and control structural interaction. This presentation outlines the FAST capabilities and provides a snapshot of the research accomplishments to date. Flight experimentation allows a researcher to substantiate or invalidate their assumptions and intuition about a new technology or innovative approach Data early in a development cycle is invaluable for determining which technology barriers are real and which ones are imagined Data for a technology at a low TRL can be used to steer and focus the exploration and fuel rapid advances based on real world lessons learned It is important to identify technologies that are mature enough to benefit from flight research data and not be tempted to wait until we have solved all the potential issues prior to getting some data Sometimes a stagnated technology just needs a little real world data to get it going One trick to getting data for low TRL technologies is finding an environment where it is okay to take risks, where occasional failure is an expected outcome Learning how things fail is often as valuable as showing that they work FAST has been architected to facilitate this type of testing for control system technologies, specifically novel algorithms and sensors Rapid prototyping with a quick turnaround in a fly-fix-fly paradigm Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to just go fly it than to analyze the problem to death The goal is to find and test control technologies that would benefit from flight data and find solutions to the real barriers to innovation. The FAST vehicle is a flexible laboratory for nascent technologies that would benefit from early life cycle flight research data It provides a robust and safe environment where innovative techniques can be explored in a fly-fix-fly rapid prototyping paradigm IRAC Simple adaptive control technologies can provide real benefits without undo complexity Adverse pilot/adaptive system interactions can be mitigated and tools have been developed to evaluate those interactions ICP Substantial fuel savings can be achieved over a broad range of vehicles and configurations with intelligent control solutions LVAC The AAC design is robust and effective for the SLS mission, and promises to provide benefits to other platforms as well OCLA Hopefully will show that structural feedback can be seamlessly integrated with performance and stability objectives All of these control technologies have been implemented into the same baseline control law and could be combined into one control solution that answers many pressing questions for modern vehicle configurations

Adaptive glide slope control for parafoil and payload aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, Michael

Airdrop systems provide a unique capability of delivering large payloads to undeveloped and inaccessible locations. Traditionally, these systems have been unguided, requiring large landing zones and drops from low altitude. The invention of the steerable, gliding, ram-air parafoil enabled the possibility of precision aerial payload delivery. In practice, the gliding ability of the ram-air parafoil can actually create major problems for airdrop systems by making them more susceptible to winds and allowing them to achieve far greater miss distances than were previously possible. Research and development work on guided airdrop systems has focused primarily on evolutionary improvements to the guidance algorithm, while the navigation and control algorithms have changed little since the initial autnomous systems were developed. Furthermore, the control mechanisms have not changed since the invention of the ram-air canopy in the 1960’s. The primary contributions of this dissertation are: (1) the development of a reliable and robust method to identify a flight dynamic model for a parafoil and payload aircraft using minimal sensor data; (2) the first demonstration in flight test of the ability to achieve large changes in glide slope over ground using coupled incidence angle variation and trailing edge brake deflection; (3) the first development of a control law to implement glide slope control on an autonomous system; (4) the first flight tests of autonomous landing with a glide slope control mechanism demonstrating an improvement in landing accuracy by a factor of 2 or more in especially windy conditions, and (5) the first demonstrations in both simulation and flight test of the ability to perform in-flight system identification to adapt the internal control mappings to flight data and provide dramatic improvements in landing accuracy when there is a significant discrepancy between the assumed and actual flight characteristics.

Global neural dynamic surface tracking control of strict-feedback systems with application to hypersonic flight vehicle.

PubMed

Xu, Bin; Yang, Chenguang; Pan, Yongping

2015-10-01

This paper studies both indirect and direct global neural control of strict-feedback systems in the presence of unknown dynamics, using the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique in a novel manner. A new switching mechanism is designed to combine an adaptive neural controller in the neural approximation domain, together with the robust controller that pulls the transient states back into the neural approximation domain from the outside. In comparison with the conventional control techniques, which could only achieve semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded stability, the proposed control scheme guarantees all the signals in the closed-loop system are globally uniformly ultimately bounded, such that the conventional constraints on initial conditions of the neural control system can be relaxed. The simulation studies of hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV) are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed global neural DSC design.

Development of a Design Methodology for Reconfigurable Flight Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, Ronald A.; McLean, C.

2000-01-01

A methodology is presented for the design of flight control systems that exhibit stability and performance-robustness in the presence of actuator failures. The design is based upon two elements. The first element consists of a control law that will ensure at least stability in the presence of a class of actuator failures. This law is created by inner-loop, reduced-order, linear dynamic inversion, and outer-loop compensation based upon Quantitative Feedback Theory. The second element consists of adaptive compensators obtained from simple and approximate time-domain identification of the dynamics of the 'effective vehicle' with failed actuator(s). An example involving the lateral-directional control of a fighter aircraft is employed both to introduce the proposed methodology and to demonstrate its effectiveness and limitations.

Mathematical model of unmanned aerial vehicle used for endurance autonomous monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chelaru, Teodor-Viorel; Chelaru, Adrian

2014-12-01

The paper purpose is to present some aspects regarding the control system of unmanned aerial vehicle - UAV, used to local observations, surveillance and monitoring interest area. The calculus methodology allows a numerical simulation of UAV evolution in bad atmospheric conditions by using nonlinear model, as well as a linear one for obtaining guidance command. The UAV model which will be presented has six DOF (degrees of freedom), and autonomous control system. This theoretical development allows us to build stability matrix, command matrix and control matrix and finally to analyse the stability of autonomous UAV flight. A robust guidance system, based on uncoupled state will be evaluated for different fly conditions and the results will be presented. The flight parameters and guidance will be analysed.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chelaru, Teodor-Viorel, E-mail: teodor.chelaru@upb.ro; Chelaru, Adrian, E-mail: achelaru@incas.ro

The paper purpose is to present some aspects regarding the control system of unmanned aerial vehicle - UAV, used to local observations, surveillance and monitoring interest area. The calculus methodology allows a numerical simulation of UAV evolution in bad atmospheric conditions by using nonlinear model, as well as a linear one for obtaining guidance command. The UAV model which will be presented has six DOF (degrees of freedom), and autonomous control system. This theoretical development allows us to build stability matrix, command matrix and control matrix and finally to analyse the stability of autonomous UAV flight. A robust guidance system,more » based on uncoupled state will be evaluated for different fly conditions and the results will be presented. The flight parameters and guidance will be analysed.« less

Approximate analytical relationships for linear optimal aeroelastic flight control laws

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kassem, Ayman Hamdy

1998-09-01

This dissertation introduces new methods to uncover functional relationships between design parameters of a contemporary control design technique and the resulting closed-loop properties. Three new methods are developed for generating such relationships through analytical expressions: the Direct Eigen-Based Technique, the Order of Magnitude Technique, and the Cost Function Imbedding Technique. Efforts concentrated on the linear-quadratic state-feedback control-design technique applied to an aeroelastic flight control task. For this specific application, simple and accurate analytical expressions for the closed-loop eigenvalues and zeros in terms of basic parameters such as stability and control derivatives, structural vibration damping and natural frequency, and cost function weights are generated. These expressions explicitly indicate how the weights augment the short period and aeroelastic modes, as well as the closed-loop zeros, and by what physical mechanism. The analytical expressions are used to address topics such as damping, nonminimum phase behavior, stability, and performance with robustness considerations, and design modifications. This type of knowledge is invaluable to the flight control designer and would be more difficult to formulate when obtained from numerical-based sensitivity analysis.

Mach 10 Stage Separation Analysis for the X43-A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tartabini, Paul V.; Bose, David M.; Thornblom, Mark N.; Lien, J. P.; Martin, John G.

2007-01-01

This paper describes the pre-flight stage separation analysis that was conducted in support of the final flight of the X-43A. In that flight, which occurred less than eight months after the successful Mach 7 flight, the X-43A Research Vehicle attained a peak speed of Mach 9.6. Details are provided on how the lessons learned from the Mach 7 flight affected separation modeling and how adjustments were made to account for the increased flight Mach number. Also, the procedure for defining the feedback loop closure and feed-forward parameters employed in the separation control logic are described, and their effect on separation performance is explained. In addition, the range and nominal values of these parameters, which were included in the Mission Data Load, are presented. Once updates were made, the nominal pre-flight trajectory and Monte Carlo statistical results were determined and stress tests were performed to ensure system robustness. During flight the vehicle performed within the uncertainty bounds predicted in the pre-flight analysis and ultimately set the world record for airbreathing powered flight.

SUSI 62 A Robust and Safe Parachute Uav with Long Flight Time and Good Payload

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thamm, H. P.

2011-09-01

In many research areas in the geo-sciences (erosion, land use, land cover change, etc.) or applications (e.g. forest management, mining, land management etc.) there is a demand for remote sensing images of a very high spatial and temporal resolution. Due to the high costs of classic aerial photo campaigns, the use of a UAV is a promising option for obtaining the desired remote sensed information at the time it is needed. However, the UAV must be easy to operate, safe, robust and should have a high payload and long flight time. For that purpose, the parachute UAV SUSI 62 was developed. It consists of a steel frame with a powerful 62 cm3 2- stroke engine and a parachute wing. The frame can be easily disassembled for transportation or to replace parts. On the frame there is a gimbal mounted sensor carrier where different sensors, standard SLR cameras and/or multi-spectral and thermal sensors can be mounted. Due to the design of the parachute, the SUSI 62 is very easy to control. Two different parachute sizes are available for different wind speed conditions. The SUSI 62 has a payload of up to 8 kg providing options to use different sensors at the same time or to extend flight duration. The SUSI 62 needs a runway of between 10 m and 50 m, depending on the wind conditions. The maximum flight speed is approximately 50 km/h. It can be operated in a wind speed of up to 6 m/s. The design of the system utilising a parachute UAV makes it comparatively safe as a failure of the electronics or the remote control only results in the UAV coming to the ground at a slow speed. The video signal from the camera, the GPS coordinates and other flight parameters are transmitted to the ground station in real time. An autopilot is available, which guarantees that the area of investigation is covered at the desired resolution and overlap. The robustly designed SUSI 62 has been used successfully in Europe, Africa and Australia for scientific projects and also for agricultural, forestry and industrial applications.

Worst-Case Flutter Margins from F/A-18 Aircraft Aeroelastic Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, Rick; Brenner, Marty

1997-01-01

An approach for computing worst-case flutter margins has been formulated in a robust stability framework. Uncertainty operators are included with a linear model to describe modeling errors and flight variations. The structured singular value, micron, computes a stability margin which directly accounts for these uncertainties. This approach introduces a new method of computing flutter margins and an associated new parameter for describing these margins. The micron margins are robust margins which indicate worst-case stability estimates with respect to the defined uncertainty. Worst-case flutter margins are computed for the F/A-18 SRA using uncertainty sets generated by flight data analysis. The robust margins demonstrate flight conditions for flutter may lie closer to the flight envelope than previously estimated by p-k analysis.

A robust adaptive flightpath reconstruction technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Verhaegen, M. H.

1986-01-01

Computational schemes are presented that allow accurate reconstruction of an aircraft's flightpath in real-time. The reconstruction of the flightpath is formulated as a linear state reconstruction problem, which can be solved via Kalman filtering (KF) techniques. This imposes some conditions upon the flight-test equipment. A reliable square root covariance KF (SRCF) implementation is chosen and further developed into a fully adaptive flightpath reconstruction scheme. Therefore, the basic SRCF is modified in order to cope with several practical problems such as: the automatic control of the convergence of the recursive KF calculations, time varying zero-bias errors on the input signal of the system model used in the KF, and the changing aircraft dynamics owing to a change in reference flight condition. The developed solutions for these problems are all implemented in a numerically stable way, which guarantees the overall flightpath reconstruction scheme to be robust. Furthermore, some special features of the used system model are exploited to make the algorithmic implementation very efficient. An experimental simulation study using simulated flight test data demonstrated these different capabilities.

Switching LPV Control with Double-Layer LPV Model for Aero-Engines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Lili; Huang, Jinquan; Pan, Muxuan

2017-11-01

To cover the whole range of operating conditions of aero-engine, a double-layer LPV model is built so as to take into account of the variability due to the flight altitude, Mach number and the rotational speed. With this framework, the problem of designing LPV state-feedback robust controller that guarantees desired bounds on both H_∞ and H_2 performances is considered. Besides this, to reduce the conservativeness caused by a single LPV controller of the whole flight envelope and the common Lyapunov function method, a new method is proposed to design a family of LPV switching controllers. The switching LPV controllers can ensure that the closed-loop system remains stable in the sense of Lyapunov under arbitrary switching logic. Meanwhile, the switching LPV controllers can ensure the parameters change smoothly. The validity and performance of the theoretical results are demonstrated through a numerical example.

Resilient Propulsion Control Research for the NASA Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control (IRAC) Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guo, Ten-Huei; Litt, Jonathan S.

2007-01-01

Gas turbine engines are designed to provide sufficient safety margins to guarantee robust operation with an exceptionally long life. However, engine performance requirements may be drastically altered during abnormal flight conditions or emergency maneuvers. In some situations, the conservative design of the engine control system may not be in the best interest of overall aircraft safety; it may be advantageous to "sacrifice" the engine to "save" the aircraft. Motivated by this opportunity, the NASA Aviation Safety Program is conducting resilient propulsion research aimed at developing adaptive engine control methodologies to operate the engine beyond the normal domain for emergency operations to maximize the possibility of safely landing the damaged aircraft. Previous research studies and field incident reports show that the propulsion system can be an effective tool to help control and eventually land a damaged aircraft. Building upon the flight-proven Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) experience, this area of research will focus on how engine control systems can improve aircraft safe-landing probabilities under adverse conditions. This paper describes the proposed research topics in Engine System Requirements, Engine Modeling and Simulation, Engine Enhancement Research, Operational Risk Analysis and Modeling, and Integrated Flight and Propulsion Controller Designs that support the overall goal.

Reentry Vehicle Flight Controls Design Guidelines: Dynamic Inversion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ito, Daigoro; Georgie, Jennifer; Valasek, John; Ward, Donald T.

2002-01-01

This report addresses issues in developing a flight control design for vehicles operating across a broad flight regime and with highly nonlinear physical descriptions of motion. Specifically it addresses the need for reentry vehicles that could operate through reentry from space to controlled touchdown on Earth. The latter part of controlled descent is achieved by parachute or paraglider - or by all automatic or a human-controlled landing similar to that of the Orbiter. Since this report addresses the specific needs of human-carrying (not necessarily piloted) reentry vehicles, it deals with highly nonlinear equations of motion, and then-generated control systems must be robust across a very wide range of physics. Thus, this report deals almost exclusively with some form of dynamic inversion (DI). Two vital aspects of control theory - noninteracting control laws and the transformation of nonlinear systems into equivalent linear systems - are embodied in DI. Though there is no doubt that the mathematical tools and underlying theory are widely available, there are open issues as to the practicality of using DI as the only or primary design approach for reentry articles. This report provides a set of guidelines that can be used to determine the practical usefulness of the technique.

Multicriteria Gain Tuning for Rotorcraft Flight Controls (also entitled The Development of the Conduit Advanced Control System Design and Evaluation Interface with a Case Study Application Fly by Wire Helicopter Design)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biezad, Daniel

1997-01-01

Handling qualities analysis and control law design would seem to be naturally complimenting components of aircraft flight control system design, however these two closely coupled disciplines are often not well integrated in practice. Handling qualities engineers and control system engineers may work in separate groups within an aircraft company. Flight control system engineers and handling quality specialists may come from different backgrounds and schooling and are often not aware of the other group's research. Thus while the handling qualities specifications represent desired aircraft response characteristics, these are rarely incorporated directly in the control system design process. Instead modem control system design techniques are based on servo-loop robustness specifications, and simple representations of the desired control response. Comprehensive handling qualities analysis is often left until the end of the design cycle and performed as a check of the completed design for satisfactory performance. This can lead to costly redesign or less than satisfactory aircraft handling qualities when the flight testing phase is reached. The desire to integrate the fields of handling qualities and flight,control systems led to the development of the CONDUIT system. This tool facilitates control system designs that achieve desired handling quality requirements and servo-loop specifications in a single design process. With CONDUIT, the control system engineer is now able to directly design and control systems to meet the complete handling specifications. CONDUIT allows the designer to retain a preferred control law structure, but then tunes the system parameters to meet the handling quality requirements.

Autonomous atmospheric entry on mars: Performance improvement using a novel adaptive control algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulrich, Steve; de Lafontaine, Jean

2007-12-01

Upcoming landing missions to Mars will require on-board guidance and control systems in order to meet the scientific requirement of landing safely within hundreds of meters to the target of interest. More specifically, in the longitudinal plane, the first objective of the entry guidance and control system is to bring the vehicle to its specified velocity at the specified altitude (as required for safe parachute deployment), while the second objective is to reach the target position in the longitudinal plane. This paper proposes an improvement to the robustness of the constant flight path angle guidance law for achieving the first objective. The improvement consists of combining this guidance law with a novel adaptive control scheme, derived from the so-called Simple Adaptive Control (SAC) technique. Monte-Carlo simulation results are shown to demonstrate the accuracy and the robustness of the proposed guidance and adaptive control system.

Design and implementation of a vision-based hovering and feature tracking algorithm for a quadrotor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Y. H.; Chahl, J. S.

2016-10-01

This paper demonstrates an approach to the vision-based control of the unmanned quadrotors for hover and object tracking. The algorithms used the Speed Up Robust Features (SURF) algorithm to detect objects. The pose of the object in the image was then calculated in order to pass the pose information to the flight controller. Finally, the flight controller steered the quadrotor to approach the object based on the calculated pose data. The above processes was run using standard onboard resources found in the 3DR Solo quadrotor in an embedded computing environment. The obtained results showed that the algorithm behaved well during its missions, tracking and hovering, although there were significant latencies due to low CPU performance of the onboard image processing system.

Improved Re-Configurable Sliding Mode Controller for Reusable Launch Vehicle of Second Generation Addressing Aerodynamic Surface Failures and Thrust Deficiencies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shtessel, Yuri B.

2002-01-01

In this report we present a time-varying sliding mode control (TV-SMC) technique for reusable launch vehicle (RLV) attitude control in ascent and entry flight phases. In ascent flight the guidance commands Euler roll, pitch and yaw angles, and in entry flight it commands the aerodynamic angles of bank, attack and sideslip. The controller employs a body rate inner loop and the attitude outer loop, which are separated in time-scale by the singular perturbation principle. The novelty of the TVSMC is that both the sliding surface and the boundary layer dynamics can be varied in real time using the PD-eigenvalue assignment technique. This salient feature is used to cope with control command saturation and integrator windup in the presence of severe disturbance or control effector failure, which enhances the robustness and fault tolerance of the controller. The TV-SMC is developed and tuned up for the X-33 sub-orbital technology demonstration vehicle in launch and re-entry modes. A variety of nominal, dispersion and failure scenarios have tested via high fidelity 6DOF simulations using MAVERIC/SLIM simulation software.

Experimental Verification of Electric Drive Technologies Based on Artificial Intelligence Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rubaai, Ahmed; Ricketts, Daniel; Kotaru, Raj; Thomas, Robert; Noga, Donald F. (Technical Monitor); Kankam, Mark D. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

In this report, a fully integrated prototype of a flight servo control system is successfully developed and implemented using brushless dc motors. The control system is developed by the fuzzy logic theory, and implemented with a multilayer neural network. First, a neural network-based architecture is introduced for fuzzy logic control. The characteristic rules and their membership functions of fuzzy systems are represented as the processing nodes in the neural network structure. The network structure and the parameter learning are performed simultaneously and online in the fuzzy-neural network system. The structure learning is based on the partition of input space. The parameter learning is based on the supervised gradient decent method, using a delta adaptation law. Using experimental setup, the performance of the proposed control system is evaluated under various operating conditions. Test results are presented and discussed in the report. The proposed learning control system has several advantages, namely, simple structure and learning capability, robustness and high tracking performance and few nodes at hidden layers. In comparison with the PI controller, the proposed fuzzy-neural network system can yield a better dynamic performance with shorter settling time, and without overshoot. Experimental results have shown that the proposed control system is adaptive and robust in responding to a wide range of operating conditions. In summary, the goal of this study is to design and implement-advanced servosystems to actuate control surfaces for flight vehicles, namely, aircraft and helicopters, missiles and interceptors, and mini- and micro-air vehicles.

Advanced Guidance and Control Project for Reusable Launch Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, John M.

2000-01-01

The goals of this project are to significantly reduce the time and cost associated with guidance and control design for reusable launch vehicles, and to increase their safety and reliability. Success will lead to reduced cycle times during vehicle design and to reduced costs associated with flying to new orbits, with new payloads, and with modified vehicles. Success will also lead to more robustness to unforeseen circumstances in flight thereby enhancing safety and reducing risk. There are many guidance and control methods available that hold some promise for improvement in the desired areas. Investigators are developing a representative set of independent guidance and control methods for this project. These methods are being incorporated into a high-fidelity off is being conducted across a broad range of flight requirements. The guidance and control methods that perform the best will have demonstrated the desired qualities.

Aerial manoeuvrability in wingless gliding ants (Cephalotes atratus)

PubMed Central

Yanoviak, Stephen P.; Munk, Yonatan; Kaspari, Mike; Dudley, Robert

2010-01-01

In contrast to the patagial membranes of gliding vertebrates, the aerodynamic surfaces used by falling wingless ants to direct their aerial descent are unknown. We conducted ablation experiments to assess the relative contributions of the hindlegs, midlegs and gaster to gliding success in workers of the Neotropical arboreal ant Cephalotes atratus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Removal of hindlegs significantly reduced the success rate of directed aerial descent as well as the glide index for successful flights. Removal of the gaster alone did not significantly alter performance relative to controls. Equilibrium glide angles during successful targeting to vertical columns were statistically equivalent between control ants and ants with either the gaster or the hindlegs removed. High-speed video recordings suggested possible use of bilaterally asymmetric motions of the hindlegs to effect body rotations about the vertical axis during targeting manoeuvre. Overall, the control of gliding flight was remarkably robust to dramatic anatomical perturbations, suggesting effective control mechanisms in the face of adverse initial conditions (e.g. falling upside down), variable targeting decisions and turbulent wind gusts during flight. PMID:20236974

Integrated flight/propulsion control system design based on a centralized approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garg, Sanjay; Mattern, Duane L.; Bullard, Randy E.

1989-01-01

An integrated flight/propulsion control system design is presented for the piloted longitudinal landing task with a modern, statically unstable, fighter aircraft. A centralized compensator based on the Linear Quadratic Gaussian/Loop Transfer Recovery methodology is first obtained to satisfy the feedback loop performance and robustness specificiations. This high-order centralized compensator is then partitioned into airframe and engine sub-controllers based on modal controllability/observability for the compensator modes. The order of the sub-controllers is then reduced using internally-balanced realization techniques and the sub-controllers are simplified by neglecting the insignificant feedbacks. These sub-controllers have the advantage that they can be implemented as separate controllers on the airframe and the engine while still retaining the important performance and stability characteristics of the full-order centralized compensator. Command prefilters are then designed for the closed-loop system with the simplified sub-controllers to obtain the desired system response to airframe and engine command inputs, and the overall system performance evaluation results are presented.

Adaptive Flight Control Design with Optimal Control Modification on an F-18 Aircraft Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burken, John J.; Nguyen, Nhan T.; Griffin, Brian J.

2010-01-01

In the presence of large uncertainties, a control system needs to be able to adapt rapidly to regain performance. Fast adaptation is referred to as the implementation of adaptive control with a large adaptive gain to reduce the tracking error rapidly; however, a large adaptive gain can lead to high-frequency oscillations which can adversely affect the robustness of an adaptive control law. A new adaptive control modification is presented that can achieve robust adaptation with a large adaptive gain without incurring high-frequency oscillations as with the standard model-reference adaptive control. The modification is based on the minimization of the Y2 norm of the tracking error, which is formulated as an optimal control problem. The optimality condition is used to derive the modification using the gradient method. The optimal control modification results in a stable adaptation and allows a large adaptive gain to be used for better tracking while providing sufficient robustness. A damping term (v) is added in the modification to increase damping as needed. Simulations were conducted on a damaged F-18 aircraft (McDonnell Douglas, now The Boeing Company, Chicago, Illinois) with both the standard baseline dynamic inversion controller and the adaptive optimal control modification technique. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modification in tracking a reference model.

A Study on Application of Fuzzy Adaptive Unscented Kalman Filter to Nonlinear Turbojet Engine Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Dongju

2018-05-01

Safe and efficient flight powered by an aircraft turbojet engine relies on the performance of the engine controller preventing compressor surge with robustness from noises or disturbances. This paper proposes the effective nonlinear controller associated with the nonlinear filter for the real turbojet engine with highly nonlinear dynamics. For the feasible controller study the nonlinearity of the engine dynamics was investigated by comparing the step responses from the linearized model with the original nonlinear dynamics. The fuzzy-based PID control logic is introduced to control the engine efficiently and FAUKF is applied for robustness from noises. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of FAUKF applied to the proposed controller such that the control performances are superior over the conventional controller and the filer performance using FAUKF indicates the satisfactory results such as clearing the defects by reducing the distortions without compressor surge, whereas the conventional UKF is not fully effective as occurring some distortions with compressor surge due to a process noise.

Linear-parameter-varying gain-scheduled control of aerospace systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barker, Jeffrey Michael

The dynamics of many aerospace systems vary significantly as a function of flight condition. Robust control provides methods of guaranteeing performance and stability goals across flight conditions. In mu-syntthesis, changes to the dynamical system are primarily treated as uncertainty. This method has been successfully applied to many control problems, and here is applied to flutter control. More recently, two techniques for generating robust gain-scheduled controller have been developed. Linear fractional transformation (LFT) gain-scheduled control is an extension of mu-synthesis in which the plant and controller are explicit functions of parameters measurable in real-time. This LFT gain-scheduled control technique is applied to the Benchmark Active Control Technology (BACT) wing, and compared with mu-synthesis control. Linear parameter-varying (LPV) gain-scheduled control is an extension of Hinfinity control to parameter varying systems. LPV gain-scheduled control directly incorporates bounds on the rate of change of the scheduling parameters, and often reduces conservatism inherent in LFT gain-scheduled control. Gain-scheduled LPV control of the BACT wing compares very favorably with the LFT controller. Gain-scheduled LPV controllers are generated for the lateral-directional and longitudinal axes of the Innovative Control Effectors (ICE) aircraft and implemented in nonlinear simulations and real-time piloted nonlinear simulations. Cooper-Harper and pilot-induced oscillation ratings were obtained for an initial design, a reference aircraft and a redesign. Piloted simulation results for the initial LPV gain-scheduled control of the ICE aircraft are compared with results for a conventional fighter aircraft in discrete pitch and roll angle tracking tasks. The results for the redesigned controller are significantly better than both the previous LPV controller and the conventional aircraft.

Global fast dynamic terminal sliding mode control for a quadrotor UAV.

PubMed

Xiong, Jing-Jing; Zhang, Guo-Bao

2017-01-01

A control method based on global fast dynamic terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) technique is proposed to design the flight controller for performing the finite-time position and attitude tracking control of a small quadrotor UAV. Firstly, the dynamic model of the quadrotor is divided into two subsystems, i.e., a fully actuated subsystem and an underactuated subsystem. Secondly, the dynamic flight controllers of the quadrotor are formulated based on global fast dynamic TSMC, which is able to guarantee that the position and velocity tracking errors of all system state variables converge to zero in finite-time. Moreover, the global fast dynamic TSMC is also able to eliminate the chattering phenomenon caused by the switching control action and realize the high precision performance. In addition, the stabilities of two subsystems are demonstrated by Lyapunov theory, respectively. Lastly, the simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control method in the presence of external disturbances. Copyright © 2016 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

System Design and Nonlinear State-Dependent Riccati Equation Control of an Autonomous Y-4 Tilt-Rotor Aerobot for Martian Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collins, Nathan Scott

Surrey Space Centre (SSC) has been working on an autonomous fixed-wing all-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerobot for the exploration of Mars for several years. SSC's previous designs have incorporated separate vertical lift and horizontal pusher rotors as well as a mono tilt-rotor configuration. The Martian aerobot's novel Y-4 tilt-rotor (Y4TR) design is a combination of two previous SSC designs and a step forward for planetary aerobots. The aerobot will fly as a Y4 multi-rotor during vertical flight and as a conventional flying wing during horizontal flight. The more robust Y4TR configuration utilizes two large fixed coaxial counter rotating rotors and two small tilt-rotors for vertical takeoff. The front tilt-rotors rotate during transition flight into the main horizontal flight configuration. The aerobot is a blended wing design with the wings using the "Zagi 10" airfoil blended to a center cover for the coaxial rotors. The open source design and analysis programs XROTOR, CROTOR, Q-BLADE, XFLR5, and OpenVSP were used to design and model the aerobot's four rotors and body. The baseline mission of the Y4TR remains the same as previously reported and will investigate the Isidis Planitia region on Mars over a month long period using optical sensors during flight and a surface science package when landed. During flight operations the aerobot will take off vertically, transition to horizontal flight, fly for around an hour, transition back to vertical flight, and land vertically. The flight missions will take place close to local noon to maximize power production via solar cells during flight. A nonlinear six degree of freedom (6DoF) dynamic model incorporating aerodynamic models of the aerobot's body and rotors has been developed to model the vertical, transition, and horizontal phases of flight. A nonlinear State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) controller has been developed for each of these flight phases. The nonlinear dynamic model was transformed into a pseudo-linear form based on the states and implemented in the SDRE controller. During transition flight the aerobot is over actuated and the weighted least squares (WLS) method is used for allocation of control effectors. Simulations of the aerobot flying in different configurations were performed to verify the performance of the SDRE controllers, including hover, transition, horizontal flight, altitude changes, and landing scenarios. Results from the simulations show the SDRE controller is a viable option for controlling the novel Y4TR Martian Aerobot.

A Low Cost Approach to the Design of Autopilot for Hypersonic Glider

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Wang; Weihua, Zhang; Ke, Peng; Donghui, Wang

2017-12-01

This paper proposes a novel integrated guidance and control (IGC) approach to improve the autopilot design with low cost for hypersonic glider in dive and pull-up phase. The main objective is robust and adaptive tracking of flight path angle (FPA) under severe flight scenarios. Firstly, the nonlinear IGC model is developed with a second order actuator dynamics. Then the adaptive command filtered back-stepping control is implemented to deal with the large aerodynamics coefficient uncertainties, control surface uncertainties and unmatched time-varying disturbances. For the autopilot, a back-stepping sliding mode control is designed to track the control surface deflection, and a nonlinear differentiator is used to avoid direct differentiating the control input. Through a series of 6-DOF numerical simulations, it’s shown that the proposed scheme successfully cancels out the large uncertainties and disturbances in tracking different kinds of FPA trajectory. The contribution of this paper lies in the application and determination of nonlinear integrated design of guidance and control system for hypersonic glider.

Fuzzy Logic Trajectory Design and Guidance for Terminal Area Energy Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burchett, Bradley

2003-01-01

The second generation reusable launch vehicle will leverage many new technologies to make flight to low earth orbit safer and more cost effective. One important capability will be completely autonomous flight during reentry and landing, thus making it unnecessary to man the vehicle for cargo missions with stringent weight constraints. Implementation of sophisticated new guidance and control methods will enable the vehicle to return to earth under less than favorable conditions. The return to earth consists of three phases--Entry, Terminal Area Energy Management (TAEM), and Approach and Landing. The Space Shuttle is programmed to fly all three phases of flight automatically, and under normal circumstances the astronaut-pilot takes manual control only during the Approach and Landing phase. The automatic control algorithms used in the Shuttle for TAEM and Approach and Landing have been developed over the past 30 years. They are computationally efficient, and based on careful study of the spacecraft's flight dynamics, and heuristic reasoning. The gliding return trajectory is planned prior to the mission, and only minor adjustments are made during flight for perturbations in the vehicle energy state. With the advent of the X-33 and X-34 technology demonstration vehicles, several authors investigated implementing advanced control methods to provide autonomous real-time design of gliding return trajectories thus enhancing the ability of the vehicle to adjust to unusual energy states. The bulk of work published to date deals primarily with the approach and landing phase of flight where changes in heading angle are small, and range to the runway is monotonically decreasing. These benign flight conditions allow for model simplification and fairly straightforward optimization. This project focuses on the TAEM phase of flight where mathematically precise methods have produced limited results. Fuzzy Logic methods are used to make onboard autonomous gliding return trajectory design robust to a wider energy envelope, and the possibility of control surface failures, thus increasing the flexibility of unmanned gliding recovery and landing.

Adaptive Augmenting Control Flight Characterization Experiment on an F/A-18

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Orr, Jeb S.; Wall, John H.; Gilligan, Eric T.

2014-01-01

This paper summarizes the Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) flight characterization experiments performed using an F/A-18 (TN 853). AAC was designed and developed specifically for launch vehicles, and is currently part of the baseline autopilot design for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). The scope covered here includes a brief overview of the algorithm (covered in more detail elsewhere), motivation and benefits of flight testing, top-level SLS flight test objectives, applicability of the F/A-18 as a platform for testing a launch vehicle control design, test cases designed to fully vet the AAC algorithm, flight test results, and conclusions regarding the functionality of AAC. The AAC algorithm developed at Marshall Space Flight Center is a forward loop gain multiplicative adaptive algorithm that modifies the total attitude control system gain in response to sensed model errors or undesirable parasitic mode resonances. The AAC algorithm provides the capability to improve or decrease performance by balancing attitude tracking with the mitigation of parasitic dynamics, such as control-structure interaction or servo-actuator limit cycles. In the case of the latter, if unmodeled or mismodeled parasitic dynamics are present that would otherwise result in a closed-loop instability or near instability, the adaptive controller decreases the total loop gain to reduce the interaction between these dynamics and the controller. This is in contrast to traditional adaptive control logic, which focuses on improving performance by increasing gain. The computationally simple AAC attitude control algorithm has stability properties that are reconcilable in the context of classical frequency-domain criteria (i.e., gain and phase margin). The algorithm assumes that the baseline attitude control design is well-tuned for a nominal trajectory and is designed to adapt only when necessary. Furthermore, the adaptation is attracted to the nominal design and adapts only on an as-needed basis (see Figure 1). The MSFC algorithm design was formulated during the Constellation Program and reached a high maturity level during SLS through simulation-based development and internal and external analytical review. The AAC algorithm design has three summary-level objectives: (1) "Do no harm;" return to baseline control design when not needed, (2) Increase performance; respond to error in ability of vehicle to track command, and (3) Regain stability; respond to undesirable control-structure interaction or other parasitic dynamics. AAC has been successfully implemented as part of the Space Launch System baseline design, including extensive testing in high-fidelity 6-DOF simulations the details of which are described in [1]. The Dryden Flight Research Center's F/A-18 Full-Scale Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST) platform is used to conduct an algorithm flight characterization experiment intended to fully vet the aforementioned design objectives. FAST was specifically designed with this type of test program in mind. The onboard flight control system has full-authority experiment control of ten aerodynamic effectors and two throttles. It has production and research sensor inputs and pilot engage/disengage and real-time configuration of up to eight different experiments on a single flight. It has failure detection and automatic reversion to fail-safe mode. The F/A-18 aircraft has an experiment envelope cleared for full-authority control and maneuvering and exhibits characteristics for robust recovery from unusual attitudes and configurations aided by the presence of a qualified test pilot. The F/A-18 aircraft has relatively high mass and inertia with exceptional performance; the F/A-18 also has a large thrust-to-weight ratio, owing to its military heritage. This enables the simulation of a portion of the ascent trajectory with a high degree of dynamic similarity to a launch vehicle, and the research flight control system can simulate unstable longitudinal dynamics. Parasitic dynamics such as slosh and bending modes, as well as atmospheric disturbances, are being produced by the airframe via modification of bending filters and the use of secondary control surfaces, including leading and trailing edge flaps, symmetric ailerons, and symmetric rudders. The platform also has the ability to inject signals in flight to simulate structural mode resonances or other challenging dynamics. This platform also offers more test maneuvers and longer maneuver times than a single rocket or missile test, which provides ample opportunity to fully and repeatedly exercise all aspects of the algorithm. Prior to testing on an F/A-18, AAC was the only component of the SLS autopilot design that had not been flight tested. The testing described in this paper raises the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) early in the SLS Program and is able to demonstrate its capabilities and robustness in a flight environment.

Implementation and Evaluation of Multiple Adaptive Control Technologies for a Generic Transport Aircraft Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Stefan F.; Kaneshige, John T.; Nguyen, Nhan T.; Krishakumar, Kalmanje S.

2010-01-01

Presented here is the evaluation of multiple adaptive control technologies for a generic transport aircraft simulation. For this study, seven model reference adaptive control (MRAC) based technologies were considered. Each technology was integrated into an identical dynamic-inversion control architecture and tuned using a methodology based on metrics and specific design requirements. Simulation tests were then performed to evaluate each technology s sensitivity to time-delay, flight condition, model uncertainty, and artificially induced cross-coupling. The resulting robustness and performance characteristics were used to identify potential strengths, weaknesses, and integration challenges of the individual adaptive control technologies

Nonlinear flight control design using backstepping methodology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, Thanh Trung

The subject of nonlinear flight control design using backstepping control methodology is investigated in the dissertation research presented here. Control design methods based on nonlinear models of the dynamic system provide higher utility and versatility because the design model more closely matches the physical system behavior. Obtaining requisite model fidelity is only half of the overall design process, however. Design of the nonlinear control loops can lessen the effects of nonlinearity, or even exploit nonlinearity, to achieve higher levels of closed-loop stability, performance, and robustness. The goal of the research is to improve control quality for a general class of strict-feedback dynamic systems and provide flight control architectures to augment the aircraft motion. The research is divided into two parts: theoretical control development for the strict-feedback form of nonlinear dynamic systems and application of the proposed theory for nonlinear flight dynamics. In the first part, the research is built on two components: transforming the nonlinear dynamic model to a canonical strict-feedback form and then applying backstepping control theory to the canonical model. The research considers a process to determine when this transformation is possible, and when it is possible, a systematic process to transfer the model is also considered when practical. When this is not the case, certain modeling assumptions are explored to facilitate the transformation. After achieving the canonical form, a systematic design procedure for formulating a backstepping control law is explored in the research. Starting with the simplest subsystem and ending with the full system, pseudo control concepts based on Lyapunov control functions are used to control each successive subsystem. Typically each pseudo control must be solved from a nonlinear algebraic equation. At the end of this process, the physical control input must be re-expressed in terms of the physical states by eliminating the pseudo control transformations. In the second part, the research focuses on nonlinear control design for flight dynamics of aircraft motion. Some assumptions on aerodynamics of the aircraft are addressed to transform full nonlinear flight dynamics into the canonical strict-feedback form. The assumptions are also analyzed, validated, and compared to show the advantages and disadvantages of the design models. With the achieved models, investigation focuses on formulating the backstepping control laws and provides an advanced control algorithm for nonlinear flight dynamics of the aircraft. Experimental and simulation studies are successfully implemented to validate the proposed control method. Advancement of nonlinear backstepping control theory and its application to nonlinear flight control are achieved in the dissertation research.

A feedback control for the advanced launch system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seywald, Hans; Cliff, Eugene M.

1991-01-01

A robust feedback algorithm is presented for a near-minimum-fuel ascent of a two-stage launch vehicle operating in the equatorial plane. The development of the algorithm is based on the ideas of neighboring optimal control and can be derived into three phases. In phase 1, the formalism of optimal control is employed to calculate fuel-optimal ascent trajectories for a simple point-mass model. In phase 2, these trajectories are used to numerically calculate gain functions of time for the control(s), the total flight time, and possibly, for other variables of interest. In phase 3, these gains are used to determine feedback expressions for the controls associated with a more realistic model of a launch vehicle. With the Advanced Launch System in mind, all calculations are performed on a two-stage vehicle with fixed thrust history, but this restriction is by no means important for the approach taken. Performance and robustness of the algorithm is found to be excellent.

Robust Fault Detection Using Robust Z1 Estimation and Fuzzy Logic

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curry, Tramone; Collins, Emmanuel G., Jr.; Selekwa, Majura; Guo, Ten-Huei (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This research considers the application of robust Z(sub 1), estimation in conjunction with fuzzy logic to robust fault detection for an aircraft fight control system. It begins with the development of robust Z(sub 1) estimators based on multiplier theory and then develops a fixed threshold approach to fault detection (FD). It then considers the use of fuzzy logic for robust residual evaluation and FD. Due to modeling errors and unmeasurable disturbances, it is difficult to distinguish between the effects of an actual fault and those caused by uncertainty and disturbance. Hence, it is the aim of a robust FD system to be sensitive to faults while remaining insensitive to uncertainty and disturbances. While fixed thresholds only allow a decision on whether a fault has or has not occurred, it is more valuable to have the residual evaluation lead to a conclusion related to the degree of, or probability of, a fault. Fuzzy logic is a viable means of determining the degree of a fault and allows the introduction of human observations that may not be incorporated in the rigorous threshold theory. Hence, fuzzy logic can provide a more reliable and informative fault detection process. Using an aircraft flight control system, the results of FD using robust Z(sub 1) estimation with a fixed threshold are demonstrated. FD that combines robust Z(sub 1) estimation and fuzzy logic is also demonstrated. It is seen that combining the robust estimator with fuzzy logic proves to be advantageous in increasing the sensitivity to smaller faults while remaining insensitive to uncertainty and disturbances.

Modal Filtering for Control of Flexible Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suh, Peter M.; Mavris, Dimitri N.

2013-01-01

Modal regulators and deformation trackers are designed for an open-loop fluttering wing model. The regulators are designed with modal coordinate and accelerometer inputs respectively. The modal coordinates are estimated with simulated fiber optics. The robust stability of the closed-loop systems is compared in a structured singular-value vector analysis. Performance is evaluated and compared in a gust alleviation and flutter suppression simulation. For the same wing and flight condition two wing-shape-tracking control architectures are presented, which achieve deformation control at any point on the wing.

Modeling, Control, and Estimation of Flexible, Aerodynamic Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ray, Cody W.

Engineers have long been inspired by nature’s flyers. Such animals navigate complex environments gracefully and efficiently by using a variety of evolutionary adaptations for high-performance flight. Biologists have discovered a variety of sensory adaptations that provide flow state feedback and allow flying animals to feel their way through flight. A specialized skeletal wing structure and plethora of robust, adaptable sensory systems together allow nature’s flyers to adapt to myriad flight conditions and regimes. In this work, motivated by biology and the successes of bio-inspired, engineered aerial vehicles, linear quadratic control of a flexible, morphing wing design is investigated, helping to pave the way for truly autonomous, mission-adaptive craft. The proposed control algorithm is demonstrated to morph a wing into desired positions. Furthermore, motivated specifically by the sensory adaptations organisms possess, this work transitions to an investigation of aircraft wing load identification using structural response as measured by distributed sensors. A novel, recursive estimation algorithm is utilized to recursively solve the inverse problem of load identification, providing both wing structural and aerodynamic states for use in a feedback control, mission-adaptive framework. The recursive load identification algorithm is demonstrated to provide accurate load estimate in both simulation and experiment.

Space Flight Operations Center local area network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodman, Ross V.

1988-01-01

The existing Mission Control and Computer Center at JPL will be replaced by the Space Flight Operations Center (SFOC). One part of the SFOC is the LAN-based distribution system. The purpose of the LAN is to distribute the processed data among the various elements of the SFOC. The SFOC LAN will provide a robust subsystem that will support the Magellan launch configuration and future project adaptation. Its capabilities include (1) a proven cable medium as the backbone for the entire network; (2) hardware components that are reliable, varied, and follow OSI standards; (3) accurate and detailed documentation for fault isolation and future expansion; and (4) proven monitoring and maintenance tools.

On-Line Mu Method for Robust Flutter Prediction in Expanding a Safe Flight Envelope for an Aircraft Model Under Flight Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, Richard C. (Inventor); Brenner, Martin J.

2001-01-01

A structured singular value (mu) analysis method of computing flutter margins has robust stability of a linear aeroelastic model with uncertainty operators (Delta). Flight data is used to update the uncertainty operators to accurately account for errors in the computed model and the observed range of aircraft dynamics of the aircraft under test caused by time-varying aircraft parameters, nonlinearities, and flight anomalies, such as test nonrepeatability. This mu-based approach computes predict flutter margins that are worst case with respect to the modeling uncertainty for use in determining when the aircraft is approaching a flutter condition and defining an expanded safe flight envelope for the aircraft that is accepted with more confidence than traditional methods that do not update the analysis algorithm with flight data by introducing mu as a flutter margin parameter that presents several advantages over tracking damping trends as a measure of a tendency to instability from available flight data.

In-flight photogrammetric camera calibration and validation via complementary lidar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gneeniss, A. S.; Mills, J. P.; Miller, P. E.

2015-02-01

This research assumes lidar as a reference dataset against which in-flight camera system calibration and validation can be performed. The methodology utilises a robust least squares surface matching algorithm to align a dense network of photogrammetric points to the lidar reference surface, allowing for the automatic extraction of so-called lidar control points (LCPs). Adjustment of the photogrammetric data is then repeated using the extracted LCPs in a self-calibrating bundle adjustment with additional parameters. This methodology was tested using two different photogrammetric datasets, a Microsoft UltraCamX large format camera and an Applanix DSS322 medium format camera. Systematic sensitivity testing explored the influence of the number and weighting of LCPs. For both camera blocks it was found that when the number of control points increase, the accuracy improves regardless of point weighting. The calibration results were compared with those obtained using ground control points, with good agreement found between the two.

High-Intensity Radiated Field Fault-Injection Experiment for a Fault-Tolerant Distributed Communication System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yates, Amy M.; Torres-Pomales, Wilfredo; Malekpour, Mahyar R.; Gonzalez, Oscar R.; Gray, W. Steven

2010-01-01

Safety-critical distributed flight control systems require robustness in the presence of faults. In general, these systems consist of a number of input/output (I/O) and computation nodes interacting through a fault-tolerant data communication system. The communication system transfers sensor data and control commands and can handle most faults under typical operating conditions. However, the performance of the closed-loop system can be adversely affected as a result of operating in harsh environments. In particular, High-Intensity Radiated Field (HIRF) environments have the potential to cause random fault manifestations in individual avionic components and to generate simultaneous system-wide communication faults that overwhelm existing fault management mechanisms. This paper presents the design of an experiment conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center's HIRF Laboratory to statistically characterize the faults that a HIRF environment can trigger on a single node of a distributed flight control system.

Robust Damage-Mitigating Control of Aircraft for High Performance and Structural Durability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caplin, Jeffrey; Ray, Asok; Joshi, Suresh M.

1999-01-01

This paper presents the concept and a design methodology for robust damage-mitigating control (DMC) of aircraft. The goal of DMC is to simultaneously achieve high performance and structural durability. The controller design procedure involves consideration of damage at critical points of the structure, as well as the performance requirements of the aircraft. An aeroelastic model of the wings has been formulated and is incorporated into a nonlinear rigid-body model of aircraft flight-dynamics. Robust damage-mitigating controllers are then designed using the H(infinity)-based structured singular value (mu) synthesis method based on a linearized model of the aircraft. In addition to penalizing the error between the ideal performance and the actual performance of the aircraft, frequency-dependent weights are placed on the strain amplitude at the root of each wing. Using each controller in turn, the control system is put through an identical sequence of maneuvers, and the resulting (varying amplitude cyclic) stress profiles are analyzed using a fatigue crack growth model that incorporates the effects of stress overload. Comparisons are made to determine the impact of different weights on the resulting fatigue crack damage in the wings. The results of simulation experiments show significant savings in fatigue life of the wings while retaining the dynamic performance of the aircraft.

A vehicle health monitoring system for the Space Shuttle Reaction Control System during reentry. M.S. Thesis - Massachusetts Inst. of Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosello, Anthony David

1995-01-01

A general two tier framework for vehicle health monitoring of Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) system actuators, effectors, and propulsion devices is presented. In this context, a top level monitor that estimates jet thrust is designed for the Space Shuttle Reaction Control System (RCS) during the reentry phase of flight. Issues of importance for the use of estimation technologies in vehicle health monitoring are investigated and quantified for the Shuttle RCS demonstration application. These issues include rate of convergence, robustness to unmodeled dynamics, sensor quality, sensor data rates, and information recording objectives. Closed loop simulations indicate that a Kalman filter design is sensitive to modeling error and robust estimators may reduce this sensitivity. Jet plume interaction with the aerodynamic flowfield is shown to be a significant effect adversely impacting the ability to accurately estimate thrust.

Visualization of multiple influences on ocellar flight control in giant honeybees with the data-mining tool Viscovery SOMine.

PubMed

Kastberger, G; Kranner, G

2000-02-01

Viscovery SOMine is a software tool for advanced analysis and monitoring of numerical data sets. It was developed for professional use in business, industry, and science and to support dependency analysis, deviation detection, unsupervised clustering, nonlinear regression, data association, pattern recognition, and animated monitoring. Based on the concept of self-organizing maps (SOMs), it employs a robust variant of unsupervised neural networks--namely, Kohonen's Batch-SOM, which is further enhanced with a new scaling technique for speeding up the learning process. This tool provides a powerful means by which to analyze complex data sets without prior statistical knowledge. The data representation contained in the trained SOM is systematically converted to be used in a spectrum of visualization techniques, such as evaluating dependencies between components, investigating geometric properties of the data distribution, searching for clusters, or monitoring new data. We have used this software tool to analyze and visualize multiple influences of the ocellar system on free-flight behavior in giant honeybees. Occlusion of ocelli will affect orienting reactivities in relation to flight target, level of disturbance, and position of the bee in the flight chamber; it will induce phototaxis and make orienting imprecise and dependent on motivational settings. Ocelli permit the adjustment of orienting strategies to environmental demands by enforcing abilities such as centering or flight kinetics and by providing independent control of posture and flight course.

Similarity Metrics for Closed Loop Dynamic Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whorton, Mark S.; Yang, Lee C.; Bedrossian, Naz; Hall, Robert A.

2008-01-01

To what extent and in what ways can two closed-loop dynamic systems be said to be "similar?" This question arises in a wide range of dynamic systems modeling and control system design applications. For example, bounds on error models are fundamental to the controller optimization with modern control design methods. Metrics such as the structured singular value are direct measures of the degree to which properties such as stability or performance are maintained in the presence of specified uncertainties or variations in the plant model. Similarly, controls-related areas such as system identification, model reduction, and experimental model validation employ measures of similarity between multiple realizations of a dynamic system. Each area has its tools and approaches, with each tool more or less suited for one application or the other. Similarity in the context of closed-loop model validation via flight test is subtly different from error measures in the typical controls oriented application. Whereas similarity in a robust control context relates to plant variation and the attendant affect on stability and performance, in this context similarity metrics are sought that assess the relevance of a dynamic system test for the purpose of validating the stability and performance of a "similar" dynamic system. Similarity in the context of system identification is much more relevant than are robust control analogies in that errors between one dynamic system (the test article) and another (the nominal "design" model) are sought for the purpose of bounding the validity of a model for control design and analysis. Yet system identification typically involves open-loop plant models which are independent of the control system (with the exception of limited developments in closed-loop system identification which is nonetheless focused on obtaining open-loop plant models from closed-loop data). Moreover the objectives of system identification are not the same as a flight test and hence system identification error metrics are not directly relevant. In applications such as launch vehicles where the open loop plant is unstable it is similarity of the closed-loop system dynamics of a flight test that are relevant.

An Experimental Evaluation of Generalized Predictive Control for Tiltrotor Aeroelastic Stability Augmentation in Airplane Mode of Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kvaternik, Raymond G.; Piatak, David J.; Nixon, Mark W.; Langston, Chester W.; Singleton, Jeffrey D.; Bennett, Richard L.; Brown, Ross K.

2001-01-01

The results of a joint NASA/Army/Bell Helicopter Textron wind-tunnel test to assess the potential of Generalized Predictive Control (GPC) for actively controlling the swashplate of tiltrotor aircraft to enhance aeroelastic stability in the airplane mode of flight are presented. GPC is an adaptive time-domain predictive control method that uses a linear difference equation to describe the input-output relationship of the system and to design the controller. The test was conducted in the Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel using an unpowered 1/5-scale semispan aeroelastic model of the V-22 that was modified to incorporate a GPC-based multi-input multi-output control algorithm to individually control each of the three swashplate actuators. Wing responses were used for feedback. The GPC-based control system was highly effective in increasing the stability of the critical wing mode for all of the conditions tested, without measurable degradation of the damping in the other modes. The algorithm was also robust with respect to its performance in adjusting to rapid changes in both the rotor speed and the tunnel airspeed.

A comparative study of multivariable robustness analysis methods as applied to integrated flight and propulsion control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schierman, John D.; Lovell, T. A.; Schmidt, David K.

1993-01-01

Three multivariable robustness analysis methods are compared and contrasted. The focus of the analysis is on system stability and performance robustness to uncertainty in the coupling dynamics between two interacting subsystems. Of particular interest is interacting airframe and engine subsystems, and an example airframe/engine vehicle configuration is utilized in the demonstration of these approaches. The singular value (SV) and structured singular value (SSV) analysis methods are compared to a method especially well suited for analysis of robustness to uncertainties in subsystem interactions. This approach is referred to here as the interacting subsystem (IS) analysis method. This method has been used previously to analyze airframe/engine systems, emphasizing the study of stability robustness. However, performance robustness is also investigated here, and a new measure of allowable uncertainty for acceptable performance robustness is introduced. The IS methodology does not require plant uncertainty models to measure the robustness of the system, and is shown to yield valuable information regarding the effects of subsystem interactions. In contrast, the SV and SSV methods allow for the evaluation of the robustness of the system to particular models of uncertainty, and do not directly indicate how the airframe (engine) subsystem interacts with the engine (airframe) subsystem.

Dynamic modeling and ascent flight control of Ares-I Crew Launch Vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Wei

This research focuses on dynamic modeling and ascent flight control of large flexible launch vehicles such as the Ares-I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV). A complete set of six-degrees-of-freedom dynamic models of the Ares-I, incorporating its propulsion, aerodynamics, guidance and control, and structural flexibility, is developed. NASA's Ares-I reference model and the SAVANT Simulink-based program are utilized to develop a Matlab-based simulation and linearization tool for an independent validation of the performance and stability of the ascent flight control system of large flexible launch vehicles. A linearized state-space model as well as a non-minimum-phase transfer function model (which is typical for flexible vehicles with non-collocated actuators and sensors) are validated for ascent flight control design and analysis. This research also investigates fundamental principles of flight control analysis and design for launch vehicles, in particular the classical "drift-minimum" and "load-minimum" control principles. It is shown that an additional feedback of angle-of-attack can significantly improve overall performance and stability, especially in the presence of unexpected large wind disturbances. For a typical "non-collocated actuator and sensor" control problem for large flexible launch vehicles, non-minimum-phase filtering of "unstably interacting" bending modes is also shown to be effective. The uncertainty model of a flexible launch vehicle is derived. The robust stability of an ascent flight control system design, which directly controls the inertial attitude-error quaternion and also employs the non-minimum-phase filters, is verified by the framework of structured singular value (mu) analysis. Furthermore, nonlinear coupled dynamic simulation results are presented for a reference model of the Ares-I CLV as another validation of the feasibility of the ascent flight control system design. Another important issue for a single main engine launch vehicle is stability under mal-function of the roll control system. The roll motion of the Ares-I Crew Launch Vehicle under nominal flight conditions is actively stabilized by its roll control system employing thrusters. This dissertation describes the ascent flight control design problem of Ares-I in the event of disabled or failed roll control. A simple pitch/yaw control logic is developed for such a technically challenging problem by exploiting the inherent versatility of a quaternion-based attitude control system. The proposed scheme requires only the desired inertial attitude quaternion to be re-computed using the actual uncontrolled roll angle information to achieve an ascent flight trajectory identical to the nominal flight case with active roll control. Another approach that utilizes a simple adjustment of the proportional-derivative gains of the quaternion-based flight control system without active roll control is also presented. This approach doesn't require the re-computation of desired inertial attitude quaternion. A linear stability criterion is developed for proper adjustments of attitude and rate gains. The linear stability analysis results are validated by nonlinear simulations of the ascent flight phase. However, the first approach, requiring a simple modification of the desired attitude quaternion, is recommended for the Ares-I as well as other launch vehicles in the event of no active roll control. Finally, the method derived to stabilize a large flexible launch vehicle in the event of uncontrolled roll drift is generalized as a modified attitude quaternion feedback law. It is used to stabilize an axisymmetric rigid body by two independent control torques.

Genetic Algorithm-Guided, Adaptive Model Order Reduction of Flexible Aircrafts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhu, Jin; Wang, Yi; Pant, Kapil; Suh, Peter; Brenner, Martin J.

2017-01-01

This paper presents a methodology for automated model order reduction (MOR) of flexible aircrafts to construct linear parameter-varying (LPV) reduced order models (ROM) for aeroservoelasticity (ASE) analysis and control synthesis in broad flight parameter space. The novelty includes utilization of genetic algorithms (GAs) to automatically determine the states for reduction while minimizing the trial-and-error process and heuristics requirement to perform MOR; balanced truncation for unstable systems to achieve locally optimal realization of the full model; congruence transformation for "weak" fulfillment of state consistency across the entire flight parameter space; and ROM interpolation based on adaptive grid refinement to generate a globally functional LPV ASE ROM. The methodology is applied to the X-56A MUTT model currently being tested at NASA/AFRC for flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. Our studies indicate that X-56A ROM with less than one-seventh the number of states relative to the original model is able to accurately predict system response among all input-output channels for pitch, roll, and ASE control at various flight conditions. The GA-guided approach exceeds manual and empirical state selection in terms of efficiency and accuracy. The adaptive refinement allows selective addition of the grid points in the parameter space where flight dynamics varies dramatically to enhance interpolation accuracy without over-burdening controller synthesis and onboard memory efforts downstream. The present MOR framework can be used by control engineers for robust ASE controller synthesis and novel vehicle design.

Mapping automotive like controls to a general aviation aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carvalho, Christopher G.

The purpose of this thesis was to develop fly-by-wire control laws enabling a general aviation aircraft to be flown with automotive controls, i.e. a steering wheel and gas/brake pedals. There was a six speed shifter used to change the flight mode of the aircraft. This essentially allows the pilot to have control over different aspects of the flight profile such as climb/descend or cruise. A highway in the sky was used to aid in the navigation since it is not intuitive to people without flight experience how to navigate from the sky or when to climb and descend. Many believe that general aviation could become as widespread as the automobile. Every person could have a personal aircraft at their disposal and it would be as easy to operate as driving an automobile. The goal of this thesis is to fuse the ease of drivability of a car with flight of a small general aviation aircraft. A standard automotive control hardware setup coupled with variably autonomous control laws will allow new pilots to fly a plane as easily as driving a car. The idea is that new pilots will require very little training to become proficient with these controls. Pilots with little time to stay current can maintain their skills simply by driving a car which is typically a daily activity. A human factors study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the applied control techniques. Pilot performance metrics were developed to compare candidates with no aviation background and experienced pilots. After analyzing the relative performance between pilots and non-pilots, it has been determined that the control system is robust and easy to learn. Candidates with no aviation experience whatsoever can learn to fly an aircraft as safely and efficiently as someone with hundreds of hours of flight experience using these controls.

Development of an Exploration-Class Cascade Distillation System: Flight Like Prototype Preliminary Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callahan, Michael R.; Sargusingh, Miriam J.

2015-01-01

The ability to recover and purify water through physiochemical processes is crucial for realizing long-term human space missions, including both planetary habitation and space travel. Because of their robust nature, distillation systems have been actively pursued as one of the technologies for water recovery. One such technology is the Cascade Distillation System (CDS) a multi-stage vacuum rotary distiller system designed to recover water in a microgravity environment. Its rotating cascading distiller operates similarly to the state of the art (SOA) vapor compressor distiller (VCD), but its control scheme and ancillary components are judged to be straightforward and simpler to implement into a successful design. Through the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Life Support Systems (LSS) Project, the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in collaboration with Honeywell International is developing a second generation flight forward prototype (CDS 2.0). The key objectives for the CDS 2.0 design task is to provide a flight forward ground prototype that demonstrates improvements over the SOA system in the areas of increased reliability and robustness, and reduced mass, power and volume. It will also incorporate exploration-class automation. The products of this task are a preliminary flight system design and a high fidelity prototype of an exploration class CDS. These products will inform the design and development of the third generation CDS which is targeted for on-orbit DTO. This paper details the preliminary design of the CDS 2.0.

Virtual Deformation Control of the X-56A Model with Simulated Fiber Optic Sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suh, Peter M.; Chin, Alexander W.; Mavris, Dimitri N.

2014-01-01

A robust control law design methodology is presented to stabilize the X-56A model and command its wing shape. The X-56A was purposely designed to experience flutter modes in its flight envelope. The methodology introduces three phases: the controller design phase, the modal filter design phase, and the reference signal design phase. A mu-optimal controller is designed and made robust to speed and parameter variations. A conversion technique is presented for generating sensor strain modes from sensor deformation mode shapes. The sensor modes are utilized for modal filtering and simulating fiber optic sensors for feedback to the controller. To generate appropriate virtual deformation reference signals, rigid-body corrections are introduced to the deformation mode shapes. After successful completion of the phases, virtual deformation control is demonstrated. The wing is deformed and it is shown that angle-ofattack changes occur which could potentially be used to an advantage. The X-56A program must demonstrate active flutter suppression. It is shown that the virtual deformation controller can achieve active flutter suppression on the X-56A simulation model.

Virtual Deformation Control of the X-56A Model with Simulated Fiber Optic Sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suh, Peter M.; Chin, Alexander Wong

2013-01-01

A robust control law design methodology is presented to stabilize the X-56A model and command its wing shape. The X-56A was purposely designed to experience flutter modes in its flight envelope. The methodology introduces three phases: the controller design phase, the modal filter design phase, and the reference signal design phase. A mu-optimal controller is designed and made robust to speed and parameter variations. A conversion technique is presented for generating sensor strain modes from sensor deformation mode shapes. The sensor modes are utilized for modal filtering and simulating fiber optic sensors for feedback to the controller. To generate appropriate virtual deformation reference signals, rigid-body corrections are introduced to the deformation mode shapes. After successful completion of the phases, virtual deformation control is demonstrated. The wing is deformed and it is shown that angle-of-attack changes occur which could potentially be used to an advantage. The X-56A program must demonstrate active flutter suppression. It is shown that the virtual deformation controller can achieve active flutter suppression on the X-56A simulation model.

Ego-motion based on EM for bionic navigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yue, Xiaofeng; Wang, L. J.; Liu, J. G.

2015-12-01

Researches have proved that flying insects such as bees can achieve efficient and robust flight control, and biologists have explored some biomimetic principles regarding how they control flight. Based on those basic studies and principles acquired from the flying insects, this paper proposes a different solution of recovering ego-motion for low level navigation. Firstly, a new type of entropy flow is provided to calculate the motion parameters. Secondly, EKF, which has been used for navigation for some years to correct accumulated error, and estimation-Maximization, which is always used to estimate parameters, are put together to determine the ego-motion estimation of aerial vehicles. Numerical simulation on MATLAB has proved that this navigation system provides more accurate position and smaller mean absolute error than pure optical flow navigation. This paper has done pioneering work in bionic mechanism to space navigation.

Piloted Simulator Evaluation of Maneuvering Envelope Information for Flight Crew Awareness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lombaerts, Thomas; Schuet, Stefan; Acosta, Diana; Kaneshige, John; Shish, Kimberlee; Martin, Lynne

2015-01-01

The implementation and evaluation of an efficient method for estimating safe aircraft maneuvering envelopes are discussed. A Bayesian approach is used to produce a deterministic algorithm for estimating aerodynamic system parameters from existing noisy sensor measurements, which are then used to estimate the trim envelope through efficient high- fidelity model-based computations of attainable equilibrium sets. The safe maneuverability limitations are extended beyond the trim envelope through a robust reachability analysis derived from an optimal control formulation. The trim and maneuvering envelope limits are then conveyed to pilots through three axes on the primary flight display. To evaluate the new display features, commercial airline crews flew multiple challenging approach and landing scenarios in the full motion Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator at NASA Ames Research Center, as part of a larger research initiative to investigate the impact on the energy state awareness of the crew. Results show that the additional display features have the potential to significantly improve situational awareness of the flight crew.

Digital robust active control law synthesis for large order flexible structure using parameter optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mukhopadhyay, V.

1988-01-01

A generic procedure for the parameter optimization of a digital control law for a large-order flexible flight vehicle or large space structure modeled as a sampled data system is presented. A linear quadratic Guassian type cost function was minimized, while satisfying a set of constraints on the steady-state rms values of selected design responses, using a constrained optimization technique to meet multiple design requirements. Analytical expressions for the gradients of the cost function and the design constraints on mean square responses with respect to the control law design variables are presented.

Flexible Wing Base Micro Aerial Vehicles: Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for Surveillance and Remote Sensor Delivery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ifju, Peter

2002-01-01

Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) will be developed for tracking individuals, locating terrorist threats, and delivering remote sensors, for surveillance and chemical/biological agent detection. The tasks are: (1) Develop robust MAV platform capable of carrying sensor payload. (2) Develop fully autonomous capabilities for delivery of sensors to remote and distant locations. The current capabilities and accomplishments are: (1) Operational electric (inaudible) 6-inch MAVs with novel flexible wing, providing superior aerodynamic efficiency and control. (2) Vision-based flight stability and control (from on-board cameras).

Reconfigurable Flight Control Using Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion with a Special Accelerometer Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bacon, Barton J.; Ostroff, Aaron J.

2000-01-01

This paper presents an approach to on-line control design for aircraft that have suffered either actuator failure, missing effector surfaces, surface damage, or any combination. The approach is based on a modified version of nonlinear dynamic inversion. The approach does not require a model of the baseline vehicle (effectors at zero deflection), but does require feedback of accelerations and effector positions. Implementation issues are addressed and the method is demonstrated on an advanced tailless aircraft. An experimental simulation analysis tool is used to directly evaluate the nonlinear system's stability robustness.

Simple Sensitivity Analysis for Orion Guidance Navigation and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pressburger, Tom; Hoelscher, Brian; Martin, Rodney; Sricharan, Kumar

2013-01-01

The performance of Orion flight software, especially its GNC software, is being analyzed by running Monte Carlo simulations of Orion spacecraft flights. The simulated performance is analyzed for conformance with flight requirements, expressed as performance constraints. Flight requirements include guidance (e.g. touchdown distance from target) and control (e.g., control saturation) as well as performance (e.g., heat load constraints). The Monte Carlo simulations disperse hundreds of simulation input variables, for everything from mass properties to date of launch. We describe in this paper a sensitivity analysis tool ("Critical Factors Tool" or CFT) developed to find the input variables or pairs of variables which by themselves significantly influence satisfaction of requirements or significantly affect key performance metrics (e.g., touchdown distance from target). Knowing these factors can inform robustness analysis, can inform where engineering resources are most needed, and could even affect operations. The contributions of this paper include the introduction of novel sensitivity measures, such as estimating success probability, and a technique for determining whether pairs of factors are interacting dependently or independently. The tool found that input variables such as moments, mass, thrust dispersions, and date of launch were found to be significant factors for success of various requirements. Examples are shown in this paper as well as a summary and physics discussion of EFT-1 driving factors that the tool found.

Payload mass improvements of supersonic retropropulsive flight for human class missions to Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fagin, Maxwell H.

Supersonic retropropulsion (SRP) is the use of retrorockets to decelerate during atmospheric flight while the vehicle is still traveling in the supersonic/hypersonic flight regime. In the context of Mars exploration, subsonic retropropulsion has a robust flight heritage for terminal landing guidance and control, but all supersonic deceleration has, to date, been performed by non-propulsive (i.e. purely aerodynamic) methods, such as aeroshells and parachutes. Extending the use of retropropulsion from the subsonic to the supersonic regime has been identified as an enabling technology for high mass humans-to-Mars architectures. However, supersonic retropropulsion still poses significant design and control challenges, stemming mainly from the complex interactions between the hypersonic engine plumes, the oncoming air flow, and the vehicle's exterior surface. These interactions lead to flow fields that are difficult to model and produce counter intuitive behaviors that are not present in purely propulsive or purely aerodynamic flight. This study will provide an overview of the work done in the design of SRP systems. Optimal throttle laws for certain trajectories will be derived that leverage aero/propulsive effects to decrease propellant requirements and increase total useful landing mass. A study of the mass savings will be made for a 10 mT reference vehicle based on a propulsive version of the Orion capsule, followed by the 100 mT ellipsoid vehicle assumed by NASA's Mars Design Reference Architecture.

Comparison of Controller and Flight Deck Algorithm Performance During Interval Management with Dynamic Arrival Trees (STARS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Battiste, Vernol; Lawton, George; Lachter, Joel; Brandt, Summer; Koteskey, Robert; Dao, Arik-Quang; Kraut, Josh; Ligda, Sarah; Johnson, Walter W.

2012-01-01

Managing the interval between arrival aircraft is a major part of the en route and TRACON controller s job. In an effort to reduce controller workload and low altitude vectoring, algorithms have been developed to allow pilots to take responsibility for, achieve and maintain proper spacing. Additionally, algorithms have been developed to create dynamic weather-free arrival routes in the presence of convective weather. In a recent study we examined an algorithm to handle dynamic re-routing in the presence of convective weather and two distinct spacing algorithms. The spacing algorithms originated from different core algorithms; both were enhanced with trajectory intent data for the study. These two algorithms were used simultaneously in a human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation where pilots performed weather-impacted arrival operations into Louisville International Airport while also performing interval management (IM) on some trials. The controllers retained responsibility for separation and for managing the en route airspace and some trials managing IM. The goal was a stress test of dynamic arrival algorithms with ground and airborne spacing concepts. The flight deck spacing algorithms or controller managed spacing not only had to be robust to the dynamic nature of aircraft re-routing around weather but also had to be compatible with two alternative algorithms for achieving the spacing goal. Flight deck interval management spacing in this simulation provided a clear reduction in controller workload relative to when controllers were responsible for spacing the aircraft. At the same time, spacing was much less variable with the flight deck automated spacing. Even though the approaches taken by the two spacing algorithms to achieve the interval management goals were slightly different they seem to be simpatico in achieving the interval management goal of 130 sec by the TRACON boundary.

GPS interferometric attitude and heading determination: Initial flight test results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vangraas, Frank; Braasch, Michael

1991-01-01

Attitude and heading determination using GPS interferometry is a well-understood concept. However, efforts have been concentrated mainly in the development of robust algorithms and applications for low dynamic, rigid platforms (e.g., shipboard). This paper presents results of what is believed by the authors to be the first realtime flight test of a GPS attitude and heading determination system. The system is installed in Ohio University's Douglas DC-3 research aircraft. Signals from four antennas are processed by an Ashtech 3DF 24-channel GPS receiver. Data from the receiver are sent to a microcomputer for storage and further computations. Attitude and heading data are sent to a second computer for display on a software generated artificial horizon. Demonstration of this technique proves its candidacy for augmentation of aircraft state estimation for flight control and navigation as well as for numerous other applications.

Robust post-stall perching with a simple fixed-wing glider using LQR-Trees.

PubMed

Moore, Joseph; Cory, Rick; Tedrake, Russ

2014-06-01

Birds routinely execute post-stall maneuvers with a speed and precision far beyond the capabilities of our best aircraft control systems. One remarkable example is a bird exploiting post-stall pressure drag in order to rapidly decelerate to land on a perch. Stall is typically associated with a loss of control authority, and it is tempting to attribute this agility of birds to the intricate morphology of the wings and tail, to their precision sensing apparatus, or their ability to perform thrust vectoring. Here we ask whether an extremely simple fixed-wing glider (no propeller) with only a single actuator in the tail is capable of landing precisely on a perch from a large range of initial conditions. To answer this question, we focus on the design of the flight control system; building upon previous work which used linear feedback control design based on quadratic regulators (LQR), we develop nonlinear feedback control based on nonlinear model-predictive control and 'LQR-Trees'. Through simulation using a flat-plate model of the glider, we find that both nonlinear methods are capable of achieving an accurate bird-like perching maneuver from a large range of initial conditions; the 'LQR-Trees' algorithm is particularly useful due to its low computational burden at runtime and its inherent performance guarantees. With this in mind, we then implement the 'LQR-Trees' algorithm on real hardware and demonstrate a 95 percent perching success rate over 147 flights for a wide range of initial speeds. These results suggest that, at least in the absence of significant disturbances like wind gusts, complex wing morphology and sensing are not strictly required to achieve accurate and robust perching even in the post-stall flow regime.

Robust estimation-free prescribed performance back-stepping control of air-breathing hypersonic vehicles without affine models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bu, Xiangwei; Wu, Xiaoyan; Huang, Jiaqi; Wei, Daozhi

2016-11-01

This paper investigates the design of a novel estimation-free prescribed performance non-affine control strategy for the longitudinal dynamics of an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (AHV) via back-stepping. The proposed control scheme is capable of guaranteeing tracking errors of velocity, altitude, flight-path angle, pitch angle and pitch rate with prescribed performance. By prescribed performance, we mean that the tracking error is limited to a predefined arbitrarily small residual set, with convergence rate no less than a certain constant, exhibiting maximum overshoot less than a given value. Unlike traditional back-stepping designs, there is no need of an affine model in this paper. Moreover, both the tedious analytic and numerical computations of time derivatives of virtual control laws are completely avoided. In contrast to estimation-based strategies, the presented estimation-free controller possesses much lower computational costs, while successfully eliminating the potential problem of parameter drifting. Owing to its independence on an accurate AHV model, the studied methodology exhibits excellent robustness against system uncertainties. Finally, simulation results from a fully nonlinear model clarify and verify the design.

Quantitative fault tolerant control design for a hydraulic actuator with a leaking piston seal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karpenko, Mark

Hydraulic actuators are complex fluid power devices whose performance can be degraded in the presence of system faults. In this thesis a linear, fixed-gain, fault tolerant controller is designed that can maintain the positioning performance of an electrohydraulic actuator operating under load with a leaking piston seal and in the presence of parametric uncertainties. Developing a control system tolerant to this class of internal leakage fault is important since a leaking piston seal can be difficult to detect, unless the actuator is disassembled. The designed fault tolerant control law is of low-order, uses only the actuator position as feedback, and can: (i) accommodate nonlinearities in the hydraulic functions, (ii) maintain robustness against typical uncertainties in the hydraulic system parameters, and (iii) keep the positioning performance of the actuator within prescribed tolerances despite an internal leakage fault that can bypass up to 40% of the rated servovalve flow across the actuator piston. Experimental tests verify the functionality of the fault tolerant control under normal and faulty operating conditions. The fault tolerant controller is synthesized based on linear time-invariant equivalent (LTIE) models of the hydraulic actuator using the quantitative feedback theory (QFT) design technique. A numerical approach for identifying LTIE frequency response functions of hydraulic actuators from acceptable input-output responses is developed so that linearizing the hydraulic functions can be avoided. The proposed approach can properly identify the features of the hydraulic actuator frequency response that are important for control system design and requires no prior knowledge about the asymptotic behavior or structure of the LTIE transfer functions. A distributed hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation architecture is constructed that enables the performance of the proposed fault tolerant control law to be further substantiated, under realistic operating conditions. Using the HIL framework, the fault tolerant hydraulic actuator is operated as a flight control actuator against the real-time numerical simulation of a high-performance jet aircraft. A robust electrohydraulic loading system is also designed using QFT so that the in-flight aerodynamic load can be experimentally replicated. The results of the HIL experiments show that using the fault tolerant controller to compensate the internal leakage fault at the actuator level can benefit the flight performance of the airplane.

Adaptive attitude control and momentum management for large-angle spacecraft maneuvers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parlos, Alexander G.; Sunkel, John W.

1992-01-01

The fully coupled equations of motion are systematically linearized around an equilibrium point of a gravity gradient stabilized spacecraft, controlled by momentum exchange devices. These equations are then used for attitude control system design of an early Space Station Freedom flight configuration, demonstrating the errors caused by the improper approximation of the spacecraft dynamics. A full state feedback controller, incorporating gain-scheduled adaptation of the attitude gains, is developed for use during spacecraft on-orbit assembly or operations characterized by significant mass properties variations. The feasibility of the gain adaptation is demonstrated via a Space Station Freedom assembly sequence case study. The attitude controller stability robustness and transient performance during gain adaptation appear satisfactory.

Robust flight design for an advanced launch system vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhand, Sanjeev K.; Wong, Kelvin K.

Current launch vehicle trajectory design philosophies are generally based on maximizing payload capability. This approach results in an expensive trajectory design process for each mission. Two concepts of robust flight design have been developed to significantly reduce this cost: Standardized Trajectories and Command Multiplier Steering (CMS). These concepts were analyzed for an Advanced Launch System (ALS) vehicle, although their applicability is not restricted to any particular vehicle. Preliminary analysis has demonstrated the feasibility of these concepts at minimal loss in payload capability.

Pilot mental workload: how well do pilots really perform?

PubMed

Morris, Charles H; Leung, Ying K

2006-12-15

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of increasing mental demands on various aspects of aircrew performance. In particular, the robustness of the prioritization and allocation hierarchy of aviate-navigate-communicate was examined, a hierarchy commonly used within the aviation industry. A total of 42 trainee pilots were divided into three workload groups (low, medium, high) to complete a desktop, computer-based exercise that simulated combinations of generic flight deck activities: flight control manipulation, rule-based actions and higher level cognitive processing, in addition to Air Traffic Control instructions that varied in length from one chunk of auditory information to seven chunks. It was found that as mental workload and auditory input increased, participants experienced considerable difficulty in carrying out the primary manipulation task. A similar decline in prioritization was also observed. Moreover, when pilots were under a high mental workload their ability to comprehend more than two chunks of auditory data deteriorated rapidly.

Integrated Flight Performance Analysis of a Launch Abort System Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tartabini, Paul V.

2007-01-01

This paper describes initial flight performance analyses conducted early in the Orion Project to support concept feasibility studies for the Crew Exploration Vehicle s Launch Abort System (LAS). Key performance requirements that significantly affect abort capability are presented. These requirements have implications on sizing the Abort Motor, tailoring its thrust profile to meet escape requirements for both launch pad and high drag/high dynamic pressure ascent aborts. Additional performance considerations are provided for the Attitude Control Motor, a key element of the Orion LAS design that eliminates the need for ballast and provides performance robustness over a passive control approach. Finally, performance of the LAS jettison function is discussed, along with implications on Jettison Motor sizing and the timing of the jettison event during a nominal mission. These studies provide an initial understanding of LAS performance that will continue to evolve as the Orion design is matured.

STS-99 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Stability and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hamelin, Jennifer L.; Jackson, Mark C.; Kirchwey, Christopher B.; Pileggi, Roberto A.

2001-01-01

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavor February 2000 and used interferometry to map 80% of the Earth's landmass. SRTM employed a 200-foot deployable mast structure to extend a second antenna away from the main antenna located in the Shuttle payload bay. Mapping requirements demanded precision pointing and orbital trajectories from the Shuttle on-orbit Flight Control System (PCS). Mast structural dynamics interaction with the FCS impacted stability and performance of the autopilot for attitude maneuvers and pointing during mapping operations. A damper system added to ensure that mast tip motion remained with in the limits of the outboard antenna tracking system while mapping also helped to mitigate structural dynamic interaction with the FCS autopilot. Late changes made to the payload damper system, which actually failed on-orbit, required a redesign and verification of the FCS autopilot filtering schemes necessary to ensure rotational control stability. In-flight measurements using three sensors were used to validate models and gauge the accuracy and robustness of the pre-mission notch filter design.

Simple Sensitivity Analysis for Orion GNC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pressburger, Tom; Hoelscher, Brian; Martin, Rodney; Sricharan, Kumar

2013-01-01

The performance of Orion flight software, especially its GNC software, is being analyzed by running Monte Carlo simulations of Orion spacecraft flights. The simulated performance is analyzed for conformance with flight requirements, expressed as performance constraints. Flight requirements include guidance (e.g. touchdown distance from target) and control (e.g., control saturation) as well as performance (e.g., heat load constraints). The Monte Carlo simulations disperse hundreds of simulation input variables, for everything from mass properties to date of launch.We describe in this paper a sensitivity analysis tool (Critical Factors Tool or CFT) developed to find the input variables or pairs of variables which by themselves significantly influence satisfaction of requirements or significantly affect key performance metrics (e.g., touchdown distance from target). Knowing these factors can inform robustness analysis, can inform where engineering resources are most needed, and could even affect operations. The contributions of this paper include the introduction of novel sensitivity measures, such as estimating success probability, and a technique for determining whether pairs of factors are interacting dependently or independently. The tool found that input variables such as moments, mass, thrust dispersions, and date of launch were found to be significant factors for success of various requirements. Examples are shown in this paper as well as a summary and physics discussion of EFT-1 driving factors that the tool found.

Nickel-Cadmium Battery Operation Management Optimization Using Robust Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blosiu, Julian O.; Deligiannis, Frank; DiStefano, Salvador

1996-01-01

In recent years following several spacecraft battery anomalies, it was determined that managing the operational factors of NASA flight NiCd rechargeable battery was very important in order to maintain space flight battery nominal performance. The optimization of existing flight battery operational performance was viewed as something new for a Taguchi Methods application.

An Alternative Flight Software Trigger Paradigm: Applying Multivariate Logistic Regression to Sense Trigger Conditions Using Inaccurate or Scarce Information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Kelly M.; Gay, Robert S.; Stachowiak, Susan J.

2013-01-01

In late 2014, NASA will fly the Orion capsule on a Delta IV-Heavy rocket for the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission. For EFT-1, the Orion capsule will be flying with a new GPS receiver and new navigation software. Given the experimental nature of the flight, the flight software must be robust to the loss of GPS measurements. Once the high-speed entry is complete, the drogue parachutes must be deployed within the proper conditions to stabilize the vehicle prior to deploying the main parachutes. When GPS is available in nominal operations, the vehicle will deploy the drogue parachutes based on an altitude trigger. However, when GPS is unavailable, the navigated altitude errors become excessively large, driving the need for a backup barometric altimeter to improve altitude knowledge. In order to increase overall robustness, the vehicle also has an alternate method of triggering the parachute deployment sequence based on planet-relative velocity if both the GPS and the barometric altimeter fail. However, this backup trigger results in large altitude errors relative to the targeted altitude. Motivated by this challenge, this paper demonstrates how logistic regression may be employed to semi-automatically generate robust triggers based on statistical analysis. Logistic regression is used as a ground processor pre-flight to develop a statistical classifier. The classifier would then be implemented in flight software and executed in real-time. This technique offers improved performance even in the face of highly inaccurate measurements. Although the logistic regression-based trigger approach will not be implemented within EFT-1 flight software, the methodology can be carried forward for future missions and vehicles.

An Alternative Flight Software Paradigm: Applying Multivariate Logistic Regression to Sense Trigger Conditions using Inaccurate or Scarce Information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Kelly; Gay, Robert; Stachowiak, Susan

2013-01-01

In late 2014, NASA will fly the Orion capsule on a Delta IV-Heavy rocket for the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission. For EFT-1, the Orion capsule will be flying with a new GPS receiver and new navigation software. Given the experimental nature of the flight, the flight software must be robust to the loss of GPS measurements. Once the high-speed entry is complete, the drogue parachutes must be deployed within the proper conditions to stabilize the vehicle prior to deploying the main parachutes. When GPS is available in nominal operations, the vehicle will deploy the drogue parachutes based on an altitude trigger. However, when GPS is unavailable, the navigated altitude errors become excessively large, driving the need for a backup barometric altimeter to improve altitude knowledge. In order to increase overall robustness, the vehicle also has an alternate method of triggering the parachute deployment sequence based on planet-relative velocity if both the GPS and the barometric altimeter fail. However, this backup trigger results in large altitude errors relative to the targeted altitude. Motivated by this challenge, this paper demonstrates how logistic regression may be employed to semi-automatically generate robust triggers based on statistical analysis. Logistic regression is used as a ground processor pre-flight to develop a statistical classifier. The classifier would then be implemented in flight software and executed in real-time. This technique offers improved performance even in the face of highly inaccurate measurements. Although the logistic regression-based trigger approach will not be implemented within EFT-1 flight software, the methodology can be carried forward for future missions and vehicles

An Alternative Flight Software Trigger Paradigm: Applying Multivariate Logistic Regression to Sense Trigger Conditions using Inaccurate or Scarce Information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Kelly M.; Gay, Robert S.; Stachowiak, Susan J.

2013-01-01

In late 2014, NASA will fly the Orion capsule on a Delta IV-Heavy rocket for the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission. For EFT-1, the Orion capsule will be flying with a new GPS receiver and new navigation software. Given the experimental nature of the flight, the flight software must be robust to the loss of GPS measurements. Once the high-speed entry is complete, the drogue parachutes must be deployed within the proper conditions to stabilize the vehicle prior to deploying the main parachutes. When GPS is available in nominal operations, the vehicle will deploy the drogue parachutes based on an altitude trigger. However, when GPS is unavailable, the navigated altitude errors become excessively large, driving the need for a backup barometric altimeter. In order to increase overall robustness, the vehicle also has an alternate method of triggering the drogue parachute deployment based on planet-relative velocity if both the GPS and the barometric altimeter fail. However, this velocity-based trigger results in large altitude errors relative to the targeted altitude. Motivated by this challenge, this paper demonstrates how logistic regression may be employed to automatically generate robust triggers based on statistical analysis. Logistic regression is used as a ground processor pre-flight to develop a classifier. The classifier would then be implemented in flight software and executed in real-time. This technique offers excellent performance even in the face of highly inaccurate measurements. Although the logistic regression-based trigger approach will not be implemented within EFT-1 flight software, the methodology can be carried forward for future missions and vehicles.

Hypersonic vehicle control law development using H(infinity) and micron-synthesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, Irene M.; Mcminn, John D.; Shaughnessy, John D.; Chowdhry, Rajiv S.

1993-01-01

Hypersonic vehicle control law development using H(infinity) and mu-synthesis is discussed. Airbreathing SSTO vehicles has a mutli-faceted mission that includes orbital operations, as well as re-entry and descent culminating in horizontal landing. However, the most challenging part of the operations is the ascent to orbit. The airbreathing propulsion requires lengthy atmospheric flight that may last as long as 30 minutes and take the vehicle half way around the globe. The vehicles's ascent is characterized by tight payload to orbit margins which translate into minimum fuel orbit as the performance criteria. Issues discussed include: SSTO airbreathing vehicle issues; control system performance requirements; robust control law framework; H(infinity) controller frequency analysis; and mu controller frequency analysis.

Closed-loop, pilot/vehicle analysis of the approach and landing task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, D. K.; Anderson, M. R.

1985-01-01

Optimal-control-theoretic modeling and frequency-domain analysis is the methodology proposed to evaluate analytically the handling qualities of higher-order manually controlled dynamic systems. Fundamental to the methodology is evaluating the interplay between pilot workload and closed-loop pilot/vehicle performance and stability robustness. The model-based metric for pilot workload is the required pilot phase compensation. Pilot/vehicle performance and loop stability is then evaluated using frequency-domain techniques. When these techniques were applied to the flight-test data for thirty-two highly-augmented fighter configurations, strong correlation was obtained between the analytical and experimental results.

Genetic Algorithm-Based Model Order Reduction of Aeroservoelastic Systems with Consistant States

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhu, Jin; Wang, Yi; Pant, Kapil; Suh, Peter M.; Brenner, Martin J.

2017-01-01

This paper presents a model order reduction framework to construct linear parameter-varying reduced-order models of flexible aircraft for aeroservoelasticity analysis and control synthesis in broad two-dimensional flight parameter space. Genetic algorithms are used to automatically determine physical states for reduction and to generate reduced-order models at grid points within parameter space while minimizing the trial-and-error process. In addition, balanced truncation for unstable systems is used in conjunction with the congruence transformation technique to achieve locally optimal realization and weak fulfillment of state consistency across the entire parameter space. Therefore, aeroservoelasticity reduced-order models at any flight condition can be obtained simply through model interpolation. The methodology is applied to the pitch-plant model of the X-56A Multi-Use Technology Testbed currently being tested at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center for flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. The present studies indicate that the reduced-order model with more than 12× reduction in the number of states relative to the original model is able to accurately predict system response among all input-output channels. The genetic-algorithm-guided approach exceeds manual and empirical state selection in terms of efficiency and accuracy. The interpolated aeroservoelasticity reduced order models exhibit smooth pole transition and continuously varying gains along a set of prescribed flight conditions, which verifies consistent state representation obtained by congruence transformation. The present model order reduction framework can be used by control engineers for robust aeroservoelasticity controller synthesis and novel vehicle design.

Adaptive terminal sliding mode control for hypersonic flight vehicles with strictly lower convex function based nonlinear disturbance observer.

PubMed

Wu, Yun-Jie; Zuo, Jing-Xing; Sun, Liang-Hua

2017-11-01

In this paper, the altitude and velocity tracking control of a generic hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV) is considered. A novel adaptive terminal sliding mode controller (ATSMC) with strictly lower convex function based nonlinear disturbance observer (SDOB) is proposed for the longitudinal dynamics of HFV in presence of both parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. First, for the sake of enhancing the anti-interference capability, SDOB is presented to estimate and compensate the equivalent disturbances by introducing a strictly lower convex function. Next, the SDOB based ATSMC (SDOB-ATSMC) is proposed to guarantee the system outputs track the reference trajectory. Then, stability of the proposed control scheme is analyzed by the Lyapunov function method. Compared with other HFV control approaches, key novelties of SDOB-ATSMC are that a novel SDOB is proposed and drawn into the (virtual) control laws to compensate the disturbances and that several adaptive laws are used to deal with the differential explosion problem. Finally, it is illustrated by the simulation results that the new method exhibits an excellent robustness and a better disturbance rejection performance than the convention approach. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Concept and realization of unmanned aerial system with different modes of operation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Czyba, Roman; Szafrański, Grzegorz; Janusz, Wojciech

2014-12-10

In this paper we describe the development process of unmanned aerial system, its mechanical components, electronics and software solutions. During the stage of design, we have formulated some necessary requirements for the multirotor vehicle and ground control station in order to build an optimal system which can be used for the reconnaissance missions. Platform is controlled by use of the ground control station (GCS) and has possibility of accomplishing video based observation tasks. In order to fulfill this requirement the on-board payload consists of mechanically stabilized camera augmented with machine vision algorithms to enable object tracking tasks. Novelty of themore » system are four modes of flight, which give full functionality of the developed UAV system. Designed ground control station is consisted not only of the application itself, but also a built-in dedicated components located inside the chassis, which together creates an advanced UAV system supporting the control and management of the flight. Mechanical part of quadrotor is designed to ensure its robustness while meeting objectives of minimizing weight of the platform. Finally the designed electronics allows for implementation of control and estimation algorithms without the needs for their excessive computational optimization.« less

The evaluation of the OSGLR algorithm for restructurable controls

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bonnice, W. F.; Wagner, E.; Hall, S. R.; Motyka, P.

1986-01-01

The detection and isolation of commercial aircraft control surface and actuator failures using the orthogonal series generalized likelihood ratio (OSGLR) test was evaluated. The OSGLR algorithm was chosen as the most promising algorithm based on a preliminary evaluation of three failure detection and isolation (FDI) algorithms (the detection filter, the generalized likelihood ratio test, and the OSGLR test) and a survey of the literature. One difficulty of analytic FDI techniques and the OSGLR algorithm in particular is their sensitivity to modeling errors. Therefore, methods of improving the robustness of the algorithm were examined with the incorporation of age-weighting into the algorithm being the most effective approach, significantly reducing the sensitivity of the algorithm to modeling errors. The steady-state implementation of the algorithm based on a single cruise linear model was evaluated using a nonlinear simulation of a C-130 aircraft. A number of off-nominal no-failure flight conditions including maneuvers, nonzero flap deflections, different turbulence levels and steady winds were tested. Based on the no-failure decision functions produced by off-nominal flight conditions, the failure detection performance at the nominal flight condition was determined. The extension of the algorithm to a wider flight envelope by scheduling the linear models used by the algorithm on dynamic pressure and flap deflection was also considered. Since simply scheduling the linear models over the entire flight envelope is unlikely to be adequate, scheduling of the steady-state implentation of the algorithm was briefly investigated.

MIMO Sliding Mode Control for a Tailless Fighter Aircraft, An Alternative to Reconfigurable Architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wells, S. R.; Hess, R. A.

2002-01-01

A frequency-domain procedure for the design of sliding mode controllers for multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) systems is presented. The methodology accommodates the effects of parasitic dynamics such as those introduced by unmodeled actuators through the introduction of multiple asymptotic observers and model reference hedging. The design procedure includes a frequency domain approach to specify the sliding manifold, the observer eigenvalues, and the hedge model. The procedure is applied to the development of a flight control system for a linear model of the Innovative Control Effector (ICE) fighter aircraft. The stability and performance robustness of the resulting design is demonstrated through the introduction of significant degradation in the control effector actuators and variation in vehicle dynamics.

Design and Demonstration of Emergency Control Modes for Enhanced Engine Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, Yuan; Litt, Jonathan S.; Guo, Ten-Huei

2013-01-01

A design concept is presented for developing control modes that enhance aircraft engine performance during emergency flight scenarios. The benefits of increased engine performance to overall vehicle survivability during these situations may outweigh the accompanied elevated risk of engine failure. The objective involves building control logic that can consistently increase engine performance beyond designed maximum levels based on an allowable heightened probability of failure. This concept is applied to two previously developed control modes: an overthrust mode that increases maximum engine thrust output and a faster response mode that improves thrust response to dynamic throttle commands. This paper describes the redesign of these control modes and presents simulation results demonstrating both enhanced engine performance and robust maintenance of the desired elevated risk level.

Application of Sliding Mode Methods to the Design of Reconfigurable Flight Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wells, Scott R.

2002-01-01

Observer-based sliding mode control is investigated for application to aircraft reconfigurable flight control. A comprehensive overview of reconfigurable flight control is given, including, a review of the current state-of-the-art within the subdisciplines of fault detection, parameter identification, adaptive control schemes, and dynamic control allocation. Of the adaptive control methods reviewed, sliding mode control (SMC) appears very promising due its property of invariance to matched uncertainty. An overview of sliding mode control is given and its remarkable properties are demonstrated by example. Sliding mode methods, however, are difficult to implement because unmodeled parasitic dynamics cause immediate and severe instability. This presents a challenge for all practical applications with limited bandwidth actuators. One method to deal with parasitic dynamics is the use of an asymptotic observer in the feedback path. Observer-based SMC is investigated, and a method for selecting observer gains is offered. An additional method for shaping the feedback loop using a filter is also developed. It is shown that this SMC prefilter is equivalent to a form of model reference hedging. A complete design procedure is given which takes advantage of the sliding mode boundary layer to recast the SMC as a linear control law. Frequency domain loop shaping is then used to design the sliding manifold. Finally, three aircraft applications are demonstrated. An F-18/HARV is used to demonstrate a SISO pitch rate tracking controller. It is also used to demonstrate a MIMO lateral-directional roll rate tracking controller. The last application is a full linear six degree-of-freedom advanced tailless fighter model. The observer-based SMC is seen to provide excellent tracking with superior robustness to parameter changes and actuator failures.

Stability Assessment and Tuning of an Adaptively Augmented Classical Controller for Launch Vehicle Flight Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZwieten, Tannen; Zhu, J. Jim; Adami, Tony; Berry, Kyle; Grammar, Alex; Orr, Jeb S.; Best, Eric A.

2014-01-01

Recently, a robust and practical adaptive control scheme for launch vehicles [ [1] has been introduced. It augments a classical controller with a real-time loop-gain adaptation, and it is therefore called Adaptive Augmentation Control (AAC). The loop-gain will be increased from the nominal design when the tracking error between the (filtered) output and the (filtered) command trajectory is large; whereas it will be decreased when excitation of flex or sloshing modes are detected. There is a need to determine the range and rate of the loop-gain adaptation in order to retain (exponential) stability, which is critical in vehicle operation, and to develop some theoretically based heuristic tuning methods for the adaptive law gain parameters. The classical launch vehicle flight controller design technics are based on gain-scheduling, whereby the launch vehicle dynamics model is linearized at selected operating points along the nominal tracking command trajectory, and Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) controller design techniques are employed to ensure asymptotic stability of the tracking error dynamics, typically by meeting some prescribed Gain Margin (GM) and Phase Margin (PM) specifications. The controller gains at the design points are then scheduled, tuned and sometimes interpolated to achieve good performance and stability robustness under external disturbances (e.g. winds) and structural perturbations (e.g. vehicle modeling errors). While the GM does give a bound for loop-gain variation without losing stability, it is for constant dispersions of the loop-gain because the GM is based on frequency-domain analysis, which is applicable only for LTI systems. The real-time adaptive loop-gain variation of the AAC effectively renders the closed-loop system a time-varying system, for which it is well-known that the LTI system stability criterion is neither necessary nor sufficient when applying to a Linear Time-Varying (LTV) system in a frozen-time fashion. Therefore, a generalized stability metric for time-varying loop=gain perturbations is needed for the AAC.

Robust, Radiation Tolerant Command and Data Handling and Power System Electronics from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nguyen, Hanson C.; Fraction, James; Ortiz-Acosta, Melyane; Dakermanji, George; Kercheval, Bradford P.; Hernandez-Pellerano, Amri; Kim, David S.; Jung, David S.; Meyer, Steven E.; Mallik, Udayan;

Small UAV Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System Design Considerations and Flight Test Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sorokowski, Paul; Skoog, Mark; Burrows, Scott; Thomas, SaraKatie

2015-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Armstrong Flight Research Center Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) project demonstrated several important collision avoidance technologies. First, the SUAV Auto GCAS design included capabilities to take advantage of terrain avoidance maneuvers flying turns to either side as well as straight over terrain. Second, the design also included innovative digital elevation model (DEM) scanning methods. The combination of multi-trajectory options and new scanning methods demonstrated the ability to reduce the nuisance potential of the SUAV while maintaining robust terrain avoidance. Third, the Auto GCAS algorithms were hosted on the processor inside a smartphone, providing a lightweight hardware configuration for use in either the ground control station or on board the test aircraft. Finally, compression of DEM data for the entire Earth and successful hosting of that data on the smartphone was demonstrated. The SUAV Auto GCAS project demonstrated that together these methods and technologies have the potential to dramatically reduce the number of controlled flight into terrain mishaps across a wide range of aviation platforms with similar capabilities including UAVs, general aviation aircraft, helicopters, and model aircraft.

Avoiding Human Error in Mission Operations: Cassini Flight Experience

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burk, Thomas A.

2012-01-01

Operating spacecraft is a never-ending challenge and the risk of human error is ever- present. Many missions have been significantly affected by human error on the part of ground controllers. The Cassini mission at Saturn has not been immune to human error, but Cassini operations engineers use tools and follow processes that find and correct most human errors before they reach the spacecraft. What is needed are skilled engineers with good technical knowledge, good interpersonal communications, quality ground software, regular peer reviews, up-to-date procedures, as well as careful attention to detail and the discipline to test and verify all commands that will be sent to the spacecraft. Two areas of special concern are changes to flight software and response to in-flight anomalies. The Cassini team has a lot of practical experience in all these areas and they have found that well-trained engineers with good tools who follow clear procedures can catch most errors before they get into command sequences to be sent to the spacecraft. Finally, having a robust and fault-tolerant spacecraft that allows ground controllers excellent visibility of its condition is the most important way to ensure human error does not compromise the mission.

Position, Attitude, and Fault-Tolerant Control of Tilting-Rotor Quadcopter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Rumit

The aim of this thesis is to present algorithms for autonomous control of tilt-rotor quadcopter UAV. In particular, this research work describes position, attitude and fault tolerant control in tilt-rotor quadcopter. Quadcopters are one of the most popular and reliable unmanned aerial systems because of the design simplicity, hovering capabilities and minimal operational cost. Numerous applications for quadcopters have been explored all over the world but very little work has been done to explore design enhancements and address the fault-tolerant capabilities of the quadcopters. The tilting rotor quadcopter is a structural advancement of traditional quadcopter and it provides additional actuated controls as the propeller motors are actuated for tilt which can be utilized to improve efficiency of the aerial vehicle during flight. The tilting rotor quadcopter design is accomplished by using an additional servo motor for each rotor that enables the rotor to tilt about the axis of the quadcopter arm. Tilting rotor quadcopter is a more agile version of conventional quadcopter and it is a fully actuated system. The tilt-rotor quadcopter is capable of following complex trajectories with ease. The control strategy in this work is to use the propeller tilts for position and orientation control during autonomous flight of the quadcopter. In conventional quadcopters, two propellers rotate in clockwise direction and other two propellers rotate in counter clockwise direction to cancel out the effective yawing moment of the system. The variation in rotational speeds of these four propellers is utilized for maneuvering. On the other hand, this work incorporates use of varying propeller rotational speeds along with tilting of the propellers for maneuvering during flight. The rotational motion of propellers work in sync with propeller tilts to control the position and orientation of the UAV during the flight. A PD flight controller is developed to achieve various modes of the flight. Further, the performance of the controller and the tilt-rotor design has been compared with respect to the conventional quadcopter in the presence of wind disturbances and sensor uncertainties. In this work, another novel feed-forward control design approach is presented for complex trajectory tracking during autonomous flight. Differential flatness based feed-forward position control is employed to enhance the performance of the UAV during complex trajectory tracking. By accounting for differential flatness based feed-forward control input parameters, a new PD controller is designed to achieve the desired performance in autonomous flight. The results for tracking complex trajectories have been presented by performing numerical simulations with and without environmental uncertainties to demonstrate robustness of the controller during flight. The conventional quadcopters are under-actuated systems and, upon failure of one propeller, the conventional quadcopter would have a tendency of spinning about the primary axis fixed to the vehicle as an outcome of the asymmetry in resultant yawing moment in the system. In this work, control of tilt-rotor quadcopter is presented upon failure of one propeller during flight. The tilt-rotor quadcopter is capable of handling a propeller failure and hence is a fault-tolerant system. The dynamic model of tilting-rotor quadcopter with one propeller failure is derived and a controller has been designed to achieve hovering and navigation capability. The simulation results of way point navigation, complex trajectory tracking and fault-tolerance are presented.

Aeroservoelastic Model Validation and Test Data Analysis of the F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brenner, Martin J.; Prazenica, Richard J.

2003-01-01

Model validation and flight test data analysis require careful consideration of the effects of uncertainty, noise, and nonlinearity. Uncertainty prevails in the data analysis techniques and results in a composite model uncertainty from unmodeled dynamics, assumptions and mechanics of the estimation procedures, noise, and nonlinearity. A fundamental requirement for reliable and robust model development is an attempt to account for each of these sources of error, in particular, for model validation, robust stability prediction, and flight control system development. This paper is concerned with data processing procedures for uncertainty reduction in model validation for stability estimation and nonlinear identification. F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) aircraft data is used to demonstrate signal representation effects on uncertain model development, stability estimation, and nonlinear identification. Data is decomposed using adaptive orthonormal best-basis and wavelet-basis signal decompositions for signal denoising into linear and nonlinear identification algorithms. Nonlinear identification from a wavelet-based Volterra kernel procedure is used to extract nonlinear dynamics from aeroelastic responses, and to assist model development and uncertainty reduction for model validation and stability prediction by removing a class of nonlinearity from the uncertainty.

Utilizing Flight Data to Update Aeroelastic Stability Estimates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, Rick; Brenner, Marty

1997-01-01

Stability analysis of high performance aircraft must account for errors in the system model. A method for computing flutter margins that incorporates flight data has been developed using robust stability theory. This paper considers applying this method to update flutter margins during a post-flight or on-line analysis. Areas of modeling uncertainty that arise when using flight data with this method are investigated. The amount of conservatism in the resulting flutter margins depends on the flight data sets used to update the model. Post-flight updates of flutter margins for an F/A-18 are presented along with a simulation of on-line updates during a flight test.

Hybrid adaptive ascent flight control for a flexible launch vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lefevre, Brian D.

For the purpose of maintaining dynamic stability and improving guidance command tracking performance under off-nominal flight conditions, a hybrid adaptive control scheme is selected and modified for use as a launch vehicle flight controller. This architecture merges a model reference adaptive approach, which utilizes both direct and indirect adaptive elements, with a classical dynamic inversion controller. This structure is chosen for a number of reasons: the properties of the reference model can be easily adjusted to tune the desired handling qualities of the spacecraft, the indirect adaptive element (which consists of an online parameter identification algorithm) continually refines the estimates of the evolving characteristic parameters utilized in the dynamic inversion, and the direct adaptive element (which consists of a neural network) augments the linear feedback signal to compensate for any nonlinearities in the vehicle dynamics. The combination of these elements enables the control system to retain the nonlinear capabilities of an adaptive network while relying heavily on the linear portion of the feedback signal to dictate the dynamic response under most operating conditions. To begin the analysis, the ascent dynamics of a launch vehicle with a single 1st stage rocket motor (typical of the Ares 1 spacecraft) are characterized. The dynamics are then linearized with assumptions that are appropriate for a launch vehicle, so that the resulting equations may be inverted by the flight controller in order to compute the control signals necessary to generate the desired response from the vehicle. Next, the development of the hybrid adaptive launch vehicle ascent flight control architecture is discussed in detail. Alterations of the generic hybrid adaptive control architecture include the incorporation of a command conversion operation which transforms guidance input from quaternion form (as provided by NASA) to the body-fixed angular rate commands needed by the hybrid adaptive flight controller, development of a Newton's method based online parameter update that is modified to include a step size which regulates the rate of change in the parameter estimates, comparison of the modified Newton's method and recursive least squares online parameter update algorithms, modification of the neural network's input structure to accommodate for the nature of the nonlinearities present in a launch vehicle's ascent flight, examination of both tracking error based and modeling error based neural network weight update laws, and integration of feedback filters for the purpose of preventing harmful interaction between the flight control system and flexible structural modes. To validate the hybrid adaptive controller, a high-fidelity Ares I ascent flight simulator and a classical gain-scheduled proportional-integral-derivative (PID) ascent flight controller were obtained from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The classical PID flight controller is used as a benchmark when analyzing the performance of the hybrid adaptive flight controller. Simulations are conducted which model both nominal and off-nominal flight conditions with structural flexibility of the vehicle either enabled or disabled. First, rigid body ascent simulations are performed with the hybrid adaptive controller under nominal flight conditions for the purpose of selecting the update laws which drive the indirect and direct adaptive components. With the neural network disabled, the results revealed that the recursive least squares online parameter update caused high frequency oscillations to appear in the engine gimbal commands. This is highly undesirable for long and slender launch vehicles, such as the Ares I, because such oscillation of the rocket nozzle could excite unstable structural flex modes. In contrast, the modified Newton's method online parameter update produced smooth control signals and was thus selected for use in the hybrid adaptive launch vehicle flight controller. In the simulations where the online parameter identification algorithm was disabled, the tracking error based neural network weight update law forced the network's output to diverge despite repeated reductions of the adaptive learning rate. As a result, the modeling error based neural network weight update law (which generated bounded signals) is utilized by the hybrid adaptive controller in all subsequent simulations. Comparing the PID and hybrid adaptive flight controllers under nominal flight conditions in rigid body ascent simulations showed that their tracking error magnitudes are similar for a period of time during the middle of the ascent phase. Though the PID controller performs better for a short interval around the 20 second mark, the hybrid adaptive controller performs far better from roughly 70 to 120 seconds. Elevating the aerodynamic loads by increasing the force and moment coefficients produced results very similar to the nominal case. However, applying a 5% or 10% thrust reduction to the first stage rocket motor causes the tracking error magnitude observed by the PID controller to be significantly elevated and diverge rapidly as the simulation concludes. In contrast, the hybrid adaptive controller steadily maintains smaller errors (often less than 50% of the corresponding PID value). Under the same sets of flight conditions with flexibility enabled, the results exhibit similar trends with the hybrid adaptive controller performing even better in each case. Again, the reduction of the first stage rocket motor's thrust clearly illustrated the superior robustness of the hybrid adaptive flight controller.

Bias Momentum Sizing for Hovering Dual-Spin Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lim, Kyong B.; Shin, Jong-Yeob; Moerder, Daniel D.

2006-01-01

An atmospheric flight vehicle in hover is typically controlled by varying its thrust vector. Achieving both levitation and attitude control with the propulsion system places considerable demands on it for agility and precision, particularly if the vehicle is statically unstable, or nearly so. These demands can be relaxed by introducing an appropriately sized angular momentum bias aligned with the vehicle's yaw axis, thus providing an additional margin of attitude stability about the roll and pitch axes. This paper describes a methodical approach for trading off angular momentum bias level needed with desired levels of vehicle response due to the design disturbance environment given a vehicle's physical parameters. It also describes several simplifications that provide a more physical and intuitive understanding of dual-spin dynamics for hovering atmospheric vehicles. This approach also mitigates the need for control torques and inadvertent actuator saturation difficulties in trying to stabilize a vehicle via control torques produced by unsteady aerodynamics, thrust vectoring, and unsteady throttling. Simulation results, based on a subscale laboratory test flying platform, demonstrate significant improvements in the attitude control robustness of the vehicle with respect to both wind disturbances and off-center of gravity payload changes during flight.

Digital avionics systems - Overview of FAA/NASA/industry-wide briefing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larsen, William E.; Carro, Anthony

1986-01-01

The effects of incorporating digital technology into the design of aircraft on the airworthiness criteria and certification procedures for aircraft are investigated. FAA research programs aimed at providing data for the functional assessment of aircraft which use digital systems for avionics and flight control functions are discussed. The need to establish testing, assurance assessment, and configuration management technologies to insure the reliability of digital systems is discussed; consideration is given to design verification, system performance/robustness, and validation technology.

Safe Maneuvering Envelope Estimation Based on a Physical Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lombaerts, Thomas J. J.; Schuet, Stefan R.; Wheeler, Kevin R.; Acosta, Diana; Kaneshige, John T.

2013-01-01

This paper discusses a computationally efficient algorithm for estimating the safe maneuvering envelope of damaged aircraft. The algorithm performs a robust reachability analysis through an optimal control formulation while making use of time scale separation and taking into account uncertainties in the aerodynamic derivatives. This approach differs from others since it is physically inspired. This more transparent approach allows interpreting data in each step, and it is assumed that these physical models based upon flight dynamics theory will therefore facilitate certification for future real life applications.

End User Acceptance - Requirements or Specifications, Certification, Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jeevarajan, Judith

2013-01-01

NASA follows top level safety requirement of two-failure tolerance (t hree levels of controls or design for minimum risk) to all catastroph ic hazards in the design of safe li-ion batteries for space use. ? R igorous development testing at appropriate levels to credible offnominal conditions and review of test data. ? Implement robust design con trols based on test results and test again to confirm safety at the a ppropriate levels. ? Stringent testing of all (100%) flight batteries (from button cells to large batteries).

Dynamic output feedback control of a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle via T-S fuzzy approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Xiaoxiang; Wu, Ligang; Hu, Changhua; Wang, Zhaoqiang; Gao, Huijun

2014-08-01

By utilising Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy set approach, this paper addresses the robust H∞ dynamic output feedback control for the non-linear longitudinal model of flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles (FAHVs). The flight control of FAHVs is highly challenging due to the unique dynamic characteristics, and the intricate couplings between the engine and fight dynamics and external disturbance. Because of the dynamics' enormous complexity, currently, only the longitudinal dynamics models of FAHVs have been used for controller design. In this work, T-S fuzzy modelling technique is utilised to approach the non-linear dynamics of FAHVs, then a fuzzy model is developed for the output tracking problem of FAHVs. The fuzzy model contains parameter uncertainties and disturbance, which can approach the non-linear dynamics of FAHVs more exactly. The flexible models of FAHVs are difficult to measure because of the complex dynamics and the strong couplings, thus a full-order dynamic output feedback controller is designed for the fuzzy model. A robust H∞ controller is designed for the obtained closed-loop system. By utilising the Lyapunov functional approach, sufficient solvability conditions for such controllers are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed T-S fuzzy dynamic output feedback control method is demonstrated by numerical simulations.

A Natural Interaction Interface for UAVs Using Intuitive Gesture Recognition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chandarana, Meghan; Trujillo, Anna; Shimada, Kenji; Allen, Danette

2016-01-01

The popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is increasing as technological advancements boost their favorability for a broad range of applications. One application is science data collection. In fields like Earth and atmospheric science, researchers are seeking to use UAVs to augment their current portfolio of platforms and increase their accessibility to geographic areas of interest. By increasing the number of data collection platforms UAVs will significantly improve system robustness and allow for more sophisticated studies. Scientists would like be able to deploy an available fleet of UAVs to fly a desired flight path and collect sensor data without needing to understand the complex low-level controls required to describe and coordinate such a mission. A natural interaction interface for a Ground Control System (GCS) using gesture recognition is developed to allow non-expert users (e.g., scientists) to define a complex flight path for a UAV using intuitive hand gesture inputs from the constructed gesture library. The GCS calculates the combined trajectory on-line, verifies the trajectory with the user, and sends it to the UAV controller to be flown.

Control of a high beta maneuvering reentry vehicle using dynamic inversion.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Watts, Alfred Chapman

2005-05-01

The design of flight control systems for high performance maneuvering reentry vehicles presents a significant challenge to the control systems designer. These vehicles typically have a much higher ballistic coefficient than crewed vehicles like as the Space Shuttle or proposed crew return vehicles such as the X-38. Moreover, the missions of high performance vehicles usually require a steeper reentry flight path angle, followed by a pull-out into level flight. These vehicles then must transit the entire atmosphere and robustly perform the maneuvers required for the mission. The vehicles must also be flown with small static margins in order to performmore » the required maneuvers, which can result in highly nonlinear aerodynamic characteristics that frequently transition from being aerodynamically stable to unstable as angle of attack increases. The control system design technique of dynamic inversion has been applied successfully to both high performance aircraft and low beta reentry vehicles. The objective of this study was to explore the application of this technique to high performance maneuvering reentry vehicles, including the basic derivation of the dynamic inversion technique, followed by the extension of that technique to the use of tabular trim aerodynamic models in the controller. The dynamic inversion equations are developed for high performance vehicles and augmented to allow the selection of a desired response for the control system. A six degree of freedom simulation is used to evaluate the performance of the dynamic inversion approach, and results for both nominal and off nominal aerodynamic characteristics are presented.« less

Membrane wing aerodynamics for micro air vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lian, Yongsheng; Shyy, Wei; Viieru, Dragos; Zhang, Baoning

2003-10-01

The aerodynamic performance of a wing deteriorates considerably as the Reynolds number decreases from 10 6 to 10 4. In particular, flow separation can result in substantial change in effective airfoil shape and cause reduced aerodynamic performance. Lately, there has been growing interest in developing suitable techniques for sustained and robust flight of micro air vehicles (MAVs) with a wingspan of 15 cm or smaller, flight speed around 10 m/ s, and a corresponding Reynolds number of 10 4-10 5. This paper reviews the aerodynamics of membrane and corresponding rigid wings under the MAV flight conditions. The membrane wing is observed to yield desirable characteristics in delaying stall as well as adapting to the unsteady flight environment, which is intrinsic to the designated flight speed. Flow structures associated with the low Reynolds number and low aspect ratio wing, such as pressure distribution, separation bubble and tip vortex are reviewed. Structural dynamics in response to the surrounding flow field is presented to highlight the multiple time-scale phenomena. Based on the computational capabilities for treating moving boundary problems, wing shape optimization can be conducted in automated manners. To enhance the lift, the effect of endplates is evaluated. The proper orthogonal decomposition method is also discussed as an economic tool to describe the flow structure around a wing and to facilitate flow and vehicle control.

Enhanced tethered-flight duration and locomotor activity by overexpression of the human gene SOD1 in Drosophila motorneurons.

PubMed

Petrosyan, Agavni; Hsieh, I-Hui; Phillips, John P; Saberi, Kourosh

2015-03-01

Mutation of the human gene superoxide dismutase (hSOD1) is associated with the fatal neurodegenerative disease familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). Selective overexpression of hSOD1 in Drosophila motorneurons increases lifespan to 140% of normal. The current study was designed to determine resistance to lifespan decline and failure of sensorimotor functions by overexpressing hSOD1 in Drosophila's motorneurons. First, we measured the ability to maintain continuous flight and wingbeat frequency (WBF) as a function of age (5 to 50 days). Flies overexpressing hSOD1 under the D42-GAL4 activator were able to sustain flight significantly longer than controls, with the largest effect observed in the middle stages of life. The hSOD1-expressed line also had, on average, slower wingbeat frequencies in late, but not early life relative to age-matched controls. Second, we examined locomotor (exploratory walking) behavior in late life when flies had lost the ability to fly (age ≥ 60 d). hSOD1-expressed flies showed significantly more robust walking activity relative to controls. Findings show patterns of functional decline dissimilar to those reported for other life-extended lines, and suggest that the hSOD1 gene not only delays death but enhances sensorimotor abilities critical to survival even in late life.

Damage-mitigating control of aircraft for high performance and life extension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caplin, Jeffrey

1998-12-01

A methodology is proposed for the synthesis of a Damage-Mitigating Control System for a high-performance fighter aircraft. The design of such a controller involves consideration of damage to critical points of the structure, as well as the performance requirements of the aircraft. This research is interdisciplinary, and brings existing knowledge in the fields of unsteady aerodynamics, structural dynamics, fracture mechanics, and control theory together to formulate a new approach towards aircraft flight controller design. A flexible wing model is formulated using the Finite Element Method, and the important mode shapes and natural frequencies are identified. The Doublet Lattice Method is employed to develop an unsteady flow model for computation of the unsteady aerodynamic loads acting on the wing due to rigid-body maneuvers and structural deformation. These two models are subsequently incorporated into a pre-existing nonlinear rigid-body aircraft flight-dynamic model. A family of robust Damage-Mitigating Controllers is designed using the Hinfinity-optimization and mu-synthesis method. In addition to weighting the error between the ideal performance and the actual performance of the aircraft, weights are also placed on the strain amplitude at the root of each wing. The results show significant savings in fatigue life of the wings while retaining the dynamic performance of the aircraft.

Java-based Graphical User Interface for MAVERIC-II

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seo, Suk Jai

2005-01-01

A computer program entitled "Marshall Aerospace Vehicle Representation in C II, (MAVERIC-II)" is a vehicle flight simulation program written primarily in the C programming language. It is written by James W. McCarter at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. The goal of the MAVERIC-II development effort is to provide a simulation tool that facilitates the rapid development of high-fidelity flight simulations for launch, orbital, and reentry vehicles of any user-defined configuration for all phases of flight. MAVERIC-II has been found invaluable in performing flight simulations for various Space Transportation Systems. The flexibility provided by MAVERIC-II has allowed several different launch vehicles, including the Saturn V, a Space Launch Initiative Two-Stage-to-Orbit concept and a Shuttle-derived launch vehicle, to be simulated during ascent and portions of on-orbit flight in an extremely efficient manner. It was found that MAVERIC-II provided the high fidelity vehicle and flight environment models as well as the program modularity to allow efficient integration, modification and testing of advanced guidance and control algorithms. In addition to serving as an analysis tool for techno logy development, many researchers have found MAVERIC-II to be an efficient, powerful analysis tool that evaluates guidance, navigation, and control designs, vehicle robustness, and requirements. MAVERIC-II is currently designed to execute in a UNIX environment. The input to the program is composed of three segments: 1) the vehicle models such as propulsion, aerodynamics, and guidance, navigation, and control 2) the environment models such as atmosphere and gravity, and 3) a simulation framework which is responsible for executing the vehicle and environment models and propagating the vehicle s states forward in time and handling user input/output. MAVERIC users prepare data files for the above models and run the simulation program. They can see the output on screen and/or store in files and examine the output data later. Users can also view the output stored in output files by calling a plotting program such as gnuplot. A typical scenario of the use of MAVERIC consists of three-steps; editing existing input data files, running MAVERIC, and plotting output results.

Perching and takeoff of a robotic insect on overhangs using switchable electrostatic adhesion.

PubMed

Graule, M A; Chirarattananon, P; Fuller, S B; Jafferis, N T; Ma, K Y; Spenko, M; Kornbluh, R; Wood, R J

2016-05-20

For aerial robots, maintaining a high vantage point for an extended time is crucial in many applications. However, available on-board power and mechanical fatigue constrain their flight time, especially for smaller, battery-powered aircraft. Perching on elevated structures is a biologically inspired approach to overcome these limitations. Previous perching robots have required specific material properties for the landing sites, such as surface asperities for spines, or ferromagnetism. We describe a switchable electroadhesive that enables controlled perching and detachment on nearly any material while requiring approximately three orders of magnitude less power than required to sustain flight. These electroadhesives are designed, characterized, and used to demonstrate a flying robotic insect able to robustly perch on a wide range of materials, including glass, wood, and a natural leaf. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Implementation Challenges for Multivariable Control: What You Did Not Learn in School

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garg, Sanjay

2008-01-01

Multivariable control allows controller designs that can provide decoupled command tracking and robust performance in the presence of modeling uncertainties. Although the last two decades have seen extensive development of multivariable control theory and example applications to complex systems in software/hardware simulations, there are no production flying systems aircraft or spacecraft, that use multivariable control. This is because of the tremendous challenges associated with implementation of such multivariable control designs. Unfortunately, the curriculum in schools does not provide sufficient time to be able to provide an exposure to the students in such implementation challenges. The objective of this paper is to share the lessons learned by a practitioner of multivariable control in the process of applying some of the modern control theory to the Integrated Flight Propulsion Control (IFPC) design for an advanced Short Take-Off Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft simulation.

Dimpled ball grid array process development for space flight applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barr, S. L.; Mehta, A.

2000-01-01

A 472 dimpled ball grid array (D-BGA) package has not been used in past space flight environments, therefore it was necessary to develop a process that would yield robust and reliable solder joints. The process developing assembly, inspection and rework techniques, were verified by conducting environmental tests. Since the 472 D-BGA packages passed the above environmental tests within the specifications, the process was successfully developed for space flight electronics.

Application of phase matching autofocus in airborne long-range oblique photography camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrushevsky, Vladimir; Guberman, Asaf

2014-06-01

The Condor2 long-range oblique photography (LOROP) camera is mounted in an aerodynamically shaped pod carried by a fast jet aircraft. Large aperture, dual-band (EO/MWIR) camera is equipped with TDI focal plane arrays and provides high-resolution imagery of extended areas at long stand-off ranges, at day and night. Front Ritchey-Chretien optics is made of highly stable materials. However, the camera temperature varies considerably in flight conditions. Moreover, a composite-material structure of the reflective objective undergoes gradual dehumidification in dry nitrogen atmosphere inside the pod, causing some small decrease of the structure length. The temperature and humidity effects change a distance between the mirrors by just a few microns. The distance change is small but nevertheless it alters the camera's infinity focus setpoint significantly, especially in the EO band. To realize the optics' resolution potential, the optimal focus shall be constantly maintained. In-flight best focus calibration and temperature-based open-loop focus control give mostly satisfactory performance. To get even better focusing precision, a closed-loop phase-matching autofocus method was developed for the camera. The method makes use of an existing beamsharer prism FPA arrangement where aperture partition exists inherently in an area of overlap between the adjacent detectors. The defocus is proportional to an image phase shift in the area of overlap. Low-pass filtering of raw defocus estimate reduces random errors related to variable scene content. Closed-loop control converges robustly to precise focus position. The algorithm uses the temperature- and range-based focus prediction as an initial guess for the closed-loop phase-matching control. The autofocus algorithm achieves excellent results and works robustly in various conditions of scene illumination and contrast.

A variable structure approach to robust control of VTOL aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calise, A. J.; Kramer, F.

1982-01-01

This paper examines the application of variable structure control theory to the design of a flight control system for the AV-8A Harrier in a hover mode. The objective in variable structure design is to confine the motion to a subspace of the total state space. The motion in this subspace is insensitive to system parameter variations and external disturbances that lie in the range space of the control. A switching type of control law results from the design procedure. The control system was designed to track a vector velocity command defined in the body frame. For comparison purposes, a proportional controller was designed using optimal linear regulator theory. Both control designs were first evaluated for transient response performance using a linearized model, then a nonlinear simulation study of a hovering approach to landing was conducted. Wind turbulence was modeled using a 1052 destroyer class air wake model.

A novel approach to rapidly explore analytical markers for quality control of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae extract granules by robust principal component analysis with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Song, Jing-Zheng; Li, Song-Lin; Zhou, Yan; Qiao, Chun-Feng; Chen, Shi-Lin; Xu, Hong-Xi

2010-11-02

In a well-controlled experiment, outliers discriminated by robust principal component analysis (RPCA) represent contents in samples which are of particular quality distinguishable from the rest of the others, therefore chemical constituents in a natural product causing discrimination between outliers and the majority of samples could be considered as analytical markers for quality control. Based on this strategy, a novel approach for rapidly exploring characteristic analytical markers was proposed for the quality control of extract granules of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae (EGRSM). In this study, large sizes of samples were analyzed via high-throughput ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-UV-Q-Tof MS). RPCA was first performed on the three groups of samples: RSM (the raw material), the in-house prepared aqueous extract of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae (AERSM) and commercial product of EGRSM, to determine the variation of specific constituents between raw material and the final products as well as the effect of manufacturing process on the overall quality. Then RPCA was performed on the commercial products of EGRSM to explore the applicability of identified characteristic markers for the quality control of EGRSM. Candidate markers were extracted by RPCA, and their molecular formulae were determined by high resolution electrospray ionization-mass spectrometric (ESI-MS) analysis. The suitability of identified markers was then evaluated by determining the relationship between quantities of the identified markers with their antioxidant activities biologically, and further confirmed in a variety of samples. In conclusion, the combination of RPCA with UHPLC-UV-Q-Tof MS is a reliable means to identify chemical markers for evaluating quality of herbal medicines. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thruster Limitation Consideration for Formation Flight Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xu, Yunjun; Fitz-Coy, Norman; Mason, Paul

2003-01-01

Physical constraints of any real system can have a drastic effect on its performance. Some of the more recognized constraints are actuator and sensor saturation and bandwidth, power consumption, sampling rate (sensor and control-loop) and computation limits. These constraints can degrade system s performance, such as settling time, overshoot, rising time, and stability margins. In order to address these issues, researchers have investigated the use of robust and nonlinear controllers that can incorporate uncertainty and constraints into a controller design. For instance, uncertainties can be addressed in the synthesis model used in such algorithms as H(sub infinity), or mu. There is a significant amount of literature addressing this type of problem. However, there is one constraint that has not often been considered; that is, actuator authority resolution. In this work, thruster resolution and controller schemes to compensate for this effect are investigated for position and attitude control of a Low Earth Orbit formation flight system In many academic problems, actuators are assumed to have infinite resolution. In real system applications, such as formation flight systems, the system actuators will not have infinite resolution. High-precision formation flying requires the relative position and the relative attitude to be controlled on the order of millimeters and arc-seconds, respectively. Therefore, the minimum force resolution is a significant concern in this application. Without the sufficient actuator resolution, the system may be unable to attain the required pointing and position precision control. Furthermore, fuel may be wasted due to high-frequency chattering phenomena when attempting to provide a fine control with inadequate actuators. To address this issue, a Sliding Mode Controller is developed along with the boundary Layer Control to provide the best control resolution constraints. A Genetic algorithm is used to optimize the controller parameters according to the states error and fuel consumption criterion. The tradeoffs and effects of the minimum force limitation on performance are studied and compared to the case without the limitation. Furthermore, two methods are proposed to reduce chattering and improve precision.

Flight control synthesis for flexible aircraft using Eigenspace assignment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, J. B.; Schmidt, D. K.

1986-01-01

The use of eigenspace assignment techniques to synthesize flight control systems for flexible aircraft is explored. Eigenspace assignment techniques are used to achieve a specified desired eigenspace, chosen to yield desirable system impulse residue magnitudes for selected system responses. Two of these are investigated. The first directly determines constant measurement feedback gains that will yield a close-loop system eigenspace close to a desired eigenspace. The second technique selects quadratic weighting matrices in a linear quadratic control synthesis that will asymptotically yield the close-loop achievable eigenspace. Finally, the possibility of using either of these techniques with state estimation is explored. Application of the methods to synthesize integrated flight-control and structural-mode-control laws for a large flexible aircraft is demonstrated and results discussed. Eigenspace selection criteria based on design goals are discussed, and for the study case it would appear that a desirable eigenspace can be obtained. In addition, the importance of state-space selection is noted along with problems with reduced-order measurement feedback. Since the full-state control laws may be implemented with dynamic compensation (state estimation), the use of reduced-order measurement feedback is less desirable. This is especially true since no change in the transient response from the pilot's input results if state estimation is used appropriately. The potential is also noted for high actuator bandwidth requirements if the linear quadratic synthesis approach is utilized. Even with the actuator pole location selected, a problem with unmodeled modes is noted due to high bandwidth. Some suggestions for future research include investigating how to choose an eigenspace that will achieve certain desired dynamics and stability robustness, determining how the choice of measurements effects synthesis results, and exploring how the phase relationships between desired eigenvector elements effects the synthesis results.

Ariane 5 and Ariane 5 Evolution GN&C Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pignié, G.

The objective of the paper is to give an overview of the Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) principles used for the Ariane 5 Launchers Family, developed for the European Space Agency. The development of the GN&C system, for the Ariane 5 Launcher, within EADS Launch Vehicle Company (formerly "Aérospatiale Space and Strategic Systems Division", and "Aérospatiale - Matra lanceurs"), and under supervision of CNES (French National Space Agency, acting as the prime contractor for Ariane Family) took a wide benefit from the existing, and flight validated methods used for the Ariane 4 Launcher, but a significant amount of new features were added, concerning the control loop, the guidance loop - where a fully adaptive guidance algorithm for exo- atmospheric flight was chosen - and the Failure Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FIR) management for the sensors. In the paper, we shall describe first the Ariane 5 original version GN&C (for the so-called Ariane 5 Generic launcher), but the improvements designed for the upgraded Ariane 5 Evolution, with a cryogenic third stage, will be also addressed. The first part shall be dedicated to a review of the main constraints and requirements on the GN&C system. In the second part of the paper we shall present the main features of the architecture of the GN&C system, starting from the navigation and control sensors, through the on board computer and software, and going finally to the stages Thrust Vectoring Control (TVC) subsystems, used to control the launcher during the propelled phase, as well as to the attitude control subsystem (ACS), used to control the post boost manoeuvres, and payload injection and jettisoning conditions . The main principles of the subsystems and equipment's redundancy will be also briefly addressed. In the third part, an overall description of the different algorithms, implemented for Navigation, Guidance, Control, and sensors Failure Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FIR), for atmospheric flight, propelled exo- atmospheric flight and post boost manoeuvres, will be performed. The fourth part of the paper will be dedicated to the assessment of the main performances of the GN&C system. In the last part the main differences between Ariane 5 and Ariane 5 Evolution, with a cryogenic third stage, having a large impact on the GN&C system or the GN&C behaviour will be presented, as well as the improvements on the GN&C algorithms, proposed to cope with theses evolutions. The reasons for changing will be described, and the stress will be put on the most significant evolution for the GN&C systems, which is the replacement of the former Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) based control loop, for the atmospheric flight phase, by a new control loop, based on a robust control approach, through an H infinity design. We believe that this robust control approach, which received, from the middle of the eighties, a very wide attention from the automatic control scientific community (with the issue of a very large set of scientific papers), is particularly well suited to cope with the control of a flexible launcher. It is actually the case for our launcher, because we have bending modes that may have a low frequency, with respect to the dynamic of the rigid body (which is unstable in open loop), and a high excitability, by the control loop. Such a situation may yield potentially unacceptable coupling effects, or poor low frequency performances, if the control design and tuning are not very accurately optimised, with respect to the trade-off between the low frequency performances (such as general loads reduction, tracking of the attitude set-point, ...) and the attenuation, in close loop, of the bending modes, and fuel sloshing modes.

System identification of a small low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle using flight data from low-cost sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffer, Nathan Von

Remote sensing has traditionally been done with satellites and manned aircraft. While. these methods can yield useful scientificc data, satellites and manned aircraft have limitations in data frequency, process time, and real time re-tasking. Small low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide greater possibilities for personal scientic research than traditional remote sensing platforms. Precision aerial data requires an accurate vehicle dynamics model for controller development, robust flight characteristics, and fault tolerance. One method of developing a model is system identification (system ID). In this thesis system ID of a small low-cost fixed-wing T-tail UAV is conducted. The linerized longitudinal equations of motion are derived from first principles. Foundations of Recursive Least Squares (RLS) are presented along with RLS with an Error Filtering Online Learning scheme (EFOL). Sensors, data collection, data consistency checking, and data processing are described. Batch least squares (BLS) and BLS with EFOL are used to identify aerodynamic coecoefficients of the UAV. Results of these two methods with flight data are discussed.

Visual regulation of ground speed and headwind compensation in freely flying honey bees (Apis mellifera L.).

PubMed

Barron, Andrew; Srinivasan, Mandyam V

2006-03-01

There is now increasing evidence that honey bees regulate their ground speed in flight by holding constant the speed at which the image of the environment moves across the eye (optic flow). We have investigated the extent to which ground speed is affected by headwinds. Honey bees were trained to enter a tunnel to forage at a sucrose feeder placed at its far end. Ground speeds in the tunnel were recorded while systematically varying the visual texture of the tunnel, and the strength of headwinds experienced by the flying bees. We found that in a flight tunnel bees used visual cues to maintain their ground speed, and adjusted their air speed to maintain a constant rate of optic flow, even against headwinds which were, at their strongest, 50% of a bee's maximum recorded forward velocity. Manipulation of the visual texture revealed that headwind is compensated almost fully even when the optic flow cues are very sparse and subtle, demonstrating the robustness of this visual flight control system. We discuss these findings in the context of field observations of flying bees.

The Legacy of Space Shuttle Flight Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hickey, Christopher J.; Loveall, James B.; Orr, James K.; Klausman, Andrew L.

2011-01-01

The initial goals of the Space Shuttle Program required that the avionics and software systems blaze new trails in advancing avionics system technology. Many of the requirements placed on avionics and software were accomplished for the first time on this program. Examples include comprehensive digital fly-by-wire technology, use of a digital databus for flight critical functions, fail operational/fail safe requirements, complex automated redundancy management, and the use of a high-order software language for flight software development. In order to meet the operational and safety goals of the program, the Space Shuttle software had to be extremely high quality, reliable, robust, reconfigurable and maintainable. To achieve this, the software development team evolved a software process focused on continuous process improvement and defect elimination that consistently produced highly predictable and top quality results, providing software managers the confidence needed to sign each Certificate of Flight Readiness (COFR). This process, which has been appraised at Capability Maturity Model (CMM)/Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5, has resulted in one of the lowest software defect rates in the industry. This paper will present an overview of the evolution of the Primary Avionics Software System (PASS) project and processes over thirty years, an argument for strong statistical control of software processes with examples, an overview of the success story for identifying and driving out errors before flight, a case study of the few significant software issues and how they were either identified before flight or slipped through the process onto a flight vehicle, and identification of the valuable lessons learned over the life of the project.

Trading Robustness Requirements in Mars Entry Trajectory Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lafleur, Jarret M.

2009-01-01

One of the most important metrics characterizing an atmospheric entry trajectory in preliminary design is the size of its predicted landing ellipse. Often, requirements for this ellipse are set early in design and significantly influence both the expected scientific return from a particular mission and the cost of development. Requirements typically specify a certain probability level (6-level) for the prescribed ellipse, and frequently this latter requirement is taken at 36. However, searches for the justification of 36 as a robustness requirement suggest it is an empirical rule of thumb borrowed from non-aerospace fields. This paper presents an investigation into the sensitivity of trajectory performance to varying robustness (6-level) requirements. The treatment of robustness as a distinct objective is discussed, and an analysis framework is presented involving the manipulation of design variables to effect trades between performance and robustness objectives. The scenario for which this method is illustrated is the ballistic entry of an MSL-class Mars entry vehicle. Here, the design variable is entry flight path angle, and objectives are parachute deploy altitude performance and error ellipse robustness. Resulting plots show the sensitivities between these objectives and trends in the entry flight path angles required to design to these objectives. Relevance to the trajectory designer is discussed, as are potential steps for further development and use of this type of analysis.

Proximity Navigation of Highly Constrained Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scarritt, S.; Swartwout, M.

2007-01-01

Bandit is a 3-kg automated spacecraft in development at Washington University in St. Louis. Bandit's primary mission is to demonstrate proximity navigation, including docking, around a 25-kg student-built host spacecraft. However, because of extreme constraints in mass, power and volume, traditional sensing and actuation methods are not available. In particular, Bandit carries only 8 fixed-magnitude cold-gas thrusters to control its 6 DOF motion. Bandit lacks true inertial sensing, and the ability to sense position relative to the host has error bounds that approach the size of the Bandit itself. Some of the navigation problems are addressed through an extremely robust, error-tolerant soft dock. In addition, we have identified a control methodology that performs well in this constrained environment: behavior-based velocity potential functions, which use a minimum-seeking method similar to Lyapunov functions. We have also adapted the discrete Kalman filter for use on Bandit for position estimation and have developed a similar measurement vs. propagation weighting algorithm for attitude estimation. This paper provides an overview of Bandit and describes the control and estimation approach. Results using our 6DOF flight simulator are provided, demonstrating that these methods show promise for flight use.

Passive dynamics is a good basis for robot design and control, not!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruina, Andy

Many airplanes can, or nearly can, glide stably without control. So, it seems natural that the first successful powered flight followed from mastery of gliding. Many bicycles can, or nearly can, balance themselves when in motion. Bicycle design seems to have evolved to gain this feature. Also, we can make toys and 'robots' that, like a stable glider or coasting bicycle, stably walk without motors or control in a remarkably human-like way. Again, it seems to make sense to use `passive-dynamics' as a core for developing the control of walking robots and to gain understanding of the control of walking people. That's what I used to think. But, so far, this has not led to robust walking robots. What about human evolution? We didn't evolve dynamic bodies and then learn to control them. Rather, people had elaborate control systems way back when we were fish and even worms. However: if control is paramount, why is it that uncontrolled passive-dynamic walkers walk so much like humans? It seems that energy optimal, yet robust, control, perhaps a proxy for evolutionary development, arrives at solutions that have some features in common with passive-dynamics. Rather than thinking of good powered walking as passive walking with a small amount of control added, I now think of good powered walking, human or robotic, as highly controlled, while optimized for, in part, minimal actuator use. Thus, much of the motor effort, always at the ready, is usually titrated out.

Rules to fly by: pigeons navigating horizontal obstacles limit steering by selecting gaps most aligned to their flight direction.

PubMed

Ros, Ivo G; Bhagavatula, Partha S; Lin, Huai-Ti; Biewener, Andrew A

2017-02-06

Flying animals must successfully contend with obstacles in their natural environments. Inspired by the robust manoeuvring abilities of flying animals, unmanned aerial systems are being developed and tested to improve flight control through cluttered environments. We previously examined steering strategies that pigeons adopt to fly through an array of vertical obstacles (VOs). Modelling VO flight guidance revealed that pigeons steer towards larger visual gaps when making fast steering decisions. In the present experiments, we recorded three-dimensional flight kinematics of pigeons as they flew through randomized arrays of horizontal obstacles (HOs). We found that pigeons still decelerated upon approach but flew faster through a denser array of HOs compared with the VO array previously tested. Pigeons exhibited limited steering and chose gaps between obstacles most aligned to their immediate flight direction, in contrast to VO navigation that favoured widest gap steering. In addition, pigeons navigated past the HOs with more variable and decreased wing stroke span and adjusted their wing stroke plane to reduce contact with the obstacles. Variability in wing extension, stroke plane and wing stroke path was greater during HO flight. Pigeons also exhibited pronounced head movements when negotiating HOs, which potentially serve a visual function. These head-bobbing-like movements were most pronounced in the horizontal (flight direction) and vertical directions, consistent with engaging motion vision mechanisms for obstacle detection. These results show that pigeons exhibit a keen kinesthetic sense of their body and wings in relation to obstacles. Together with aerodynamic flapping flight mechanics that favours vertical manoeuvring, pigeons are able to navigate HOs using simple rules, with remarkable success.

Rules to fly by: pigeons navigating horizontal obstacles limit steering by selecting gaps most aligned to their flight direction

PubMed Central

Ros, Ivo G.; Bhagavatula, Partha S.; Lin, Huai-Ti

2017-01-01

Flying animals must successfully contend with obstacles in their natural environments. Inspired by the robust manoeuvring abilities of flying animals, unmanned aerial systems are being developed and tested to improve flight control through cluttered environments. We previously examined steering strategies that pigeons adopt to fly through an array of vertical obstacles (VOs). Modelling VO flight guidance revealed that pigeons steer towards larger visual gaps when making fast steering decisions. In the present experiments, we recorded three-dimensional flight kinematics of pigeons as they flew through randomized arrays of horizontal obstacles (HOs). We found that pigeons still decelerated upon approach but flew faster through a denser array of HOs compared with the VO array previously tested. Pigeons exhibited limited steering and chose gaps between obstacles most aligned to their immediate flight direction, in contrast to VO navigation that favoured widest gap steering. In addition, pigeons navigated past the HOs with more variable and decreased wing stroke span and adjusted their wing stroke plane to reduce contact with the obstacles. Variability in wing extension, stroke plane and wing stroke path was greater during HO flight. Pigeons also exhibited pronounced head movements when negotiating HOs, which potentially serve a visual function. These head-bobbing-like movements were most pronounced in the horizontal (flight direction) and vertical directions, consistent with engaging motion vision mechanisms for obstacle detection. These results show that pigeons exhibit a keen kinesthetic sense of their body and wings in relation to obstacles. Together with aerodynamic flapping flight mechanics that favours vertical manoeuvring, pigeons are able to navigate HOs using simple rules, with remarkable success. PMID:28163883

Joint U.S./Japan Conference on Adaptive Structures, 1st, Maui, HI, Nov. 13-15, 1990, Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wada, Ben K. (Editor); Fanson, James L. (Editor); Miura, Koryo (Editor)

1991-01-01

The present volume of adaptive structures discusses the development of control laws for an orbiting tethered antenna/reflector system test scale model, the sizing of active piezoelectric struts for vibration suppression on a space-based interferometer, the control design of a space station mobile transporter with multiple constraints, and optimum configuration control of an intelligent truss structure. Attention is given to the formulation of full state feedback for infinite order structural systems, robustness issues in the design of smart structures, passive piezoelectric vibration damping, shape control experiments with a functional model for large optical reflectors, and a mathematical basis for the design optimization of adaptive trusses in precision control. Topics addressed include approaches to the optimal adaptive geometries of intelligent truss structures, the design of an automated manufacturing system for tubular smart structures, the Sandia structural control experiments, and the zero-gravity dynamics of space structures in parabolic aircraft flight.

Autorotation flight control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bachelder, Edward N. (Inventor); Aponso, Bimal L. (Inventor); Lee, Dong-Chan (Inventor)

2011-01-01

The present invention provides computer implemented methodology that permits the safe landing and recovery of rotorcraft following engine failure. With this invention successful autorotations may be performed from well within the unsafe operating area of the height-velocity profile of a helicopter by employing the fast and robust real-time trajectory optimization algorithm that commands control motion through an intuitive pilot display, or directly in the case of autonomous rotorcraft. The algorithm generates optimal trajectories and control commands via the direct-collocation optimization method, solved using a nonlinear programming problem solver. The control inputs computed are collective pitch and aircraft pitch, which are easily tracked and manipulated by the pilot or converted to control actuator commands for automated operation during autorotation in the case of an autonomous rotorcraft. The formulation of the optimal control problem has been carefully tailored so the solutions resemble those of an expert pilot, accounting for the performance limitations of the rotorcraft and safety concerns.

Joint U.S./Japan Conference on Adaptive Structures, 1st, Maui, HI, Nov. 13-15, 1990, Proceedings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wada, Ben K.; Fanson, James L.; Miura, Koryo

1991-11-01

The present volume of adaptive structures discusses the development of control laws for an orbiting tethered antenna/reflector system test scale model, the sizing of active piezoelectric struts for vibration suppression on a space-based interferometer, the control design of a space station mobile transporter with multiple constraints, and optimum configuration control of an intelligent truss structure. Attention is given to the formulation of full state feedback for infinite order structural systems, robustness issues in the design of smart structures, passive piezoelectric vibration damping, shape control experiments with a functional model for large optical reflectors, and a mathematical basis for the design optimization of adaptive trusses in precision control. Topics addressed include approaches to the optimal adaptive geometries of intelligent truss structures, the design of an automated manufacturing system for tubular smart structures, the Sandia structural control experiments, and the zero-gravity dynamics of space structures in parabolic aircraft flight.

Robust approximate optimal guidance strategies for aeroassisted orbital transfer missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilgen, Marc R.

This thesis presents the application of game theoretic and regular perturbation methods to the problem of determining robust approximate optimal guidance laws for aeroassisted orbital transfer missions with atmospheric density and navigated state uncertainties. The optimal guidance problem is reformulated as a differential game problem with the guidance law designer and Nature as opposing players. The resulting equations comprise the necessary conditions for the optimal closed loop guidance strategy in the presence of worst case parameter variations. While these equations are nonlinear and cannot be solved analytically, the presence of a small parameter in the equations of motion allows the method of regular perturbations to be used to solve the equations approximately. This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the class of problems to be considered and presents results of previous research. The second part then presents explicit semianalytical guidance law techniques for the aerodynamically dominated region of flight. These guidance techniques are applied to unconstrained and control constrained aeroassisted plane change missions and Mars aerocapture missions, all subject to significant atmospheric density variations. The third part presents a guidance technique for aeroassisted orbital transfer problems in the gravitationally dominated region of flight. Regular perturbations are used to design an implicit guidance technique similar to the second variation technique but that removes the need for numerically computing an optimal trajectory prior to flight. This methodology is then applied to a set of aeroassisted inclination change missions. In the fourth part, the explicit regular perturbation solution technique is extended to include the class of guidance laws with partial state information. This methodology is then applied to an aeroassisted plane change mission using inertial measurements and subject to uncertainties in the initial value of the flight path angle. A summary of performance results for all these guidance laws is presented in the fifth part of this thesis along with recommendations for further research.

Potential for Integrating Entry Guidance into the Multi-Disciplinary Entry Vehicle Optimization Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

D'souza, Sarah N.; Kinney, David J.; Garcia, Joseph A.; Sarigul-Klijn, Nesrin

2014-01-01

The state-of-the-art in vehicle design decouples flight feasible trajectory generation from the optimization process of an entry spacecraft shape. The disadvantage to this decoupled process is seen when a particular aeroshell does not meet in-flight requirements when integrated into Guidance, Navigation, and Control simulations. It is postulated that the integration of a guidance algorithm into the design process will provide a real-time, rapid trajectory generation technique to enhance the robustness of vehicle design solutions. The potential benefit of this integration is a reduction in design cycles (possible cost savings) and increased accuracy in the aerothermal environment (possible mass savings). This work examines two aspects: 1) the performance of a reference tracking guidance algorithm for five different geometries with the same reference trajectory and 2) the potential of mass savings from improved aerothermal predictions. An Apollo Derived Guidance (ADG) algorithm is used in this study. The baseline geometry and five test case geometries were flown using the same baseline trajectory. The guided trajectory results are compared to separate trajectories determined in a vehicle optimization study conducted for NASA's Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing System Analysis. This study revealed several aspects regarding the potential gains and required developments for integrating a guidance algorithm into the vehicle optimization environment. First, the generation of flight feasible trajectories is only as good as the robustness of the guidance algorithm. The set of dispersed geometries modelled aerodynamic dispersions that ranged from +/-1% to +/-17% and a single extreme case was modelled where the aerodynamics were approximately 80% less than the baseline geometry. The ADG, as expected, was able to guide the vehicle into the aeroshell separation box at the target location for dispersions up to 17%, but failed for the 80% dispersion cases. Finally, the results revealed that including flight feasible trajectories for a set of dispersed geometries has the potential to save mass up to 430 kg.

Progress in Insect-Inspired Optical Navigation Sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thakoor, Sarita; Chahl, Javaan; Zometzer, Steve

2005-01-01

Progress has been made in continuing efforts to develop optical flight-control and navigation sensors for miniature robotic aircraft. The designs of these sensors are inspired by the designs and functions of the vision systems and brains of insects. Two types of sensors of particular interest are polarization compasses and ocellar horizon sensors. The basic principle of polarization compasses was described (but without using the term "polarization compass") in "Insect-Inspired Flight Control for Small Flying Robots" (NPO-30545), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 29, No. 1 (January 2005), page 61. To recapitulate: Bees use sky polarization patterns in ultraviolet (UV) light, caused by Rayleigh scattering of sunlight by atmospheric gas molecules, as direction references relative to the apparent position of the Sun. A robotic direction-finding technique based on this concept would be more robust in comparison with a technique based on the direction to the visible Sun because the UV polarization pattern is distributed across the entire sky and, hence, is redundant and can be extrapolated from a small region of clear sky in an elsewhere cloudy sky that hides the Sun.

Impact of Cross-Axis Structural Dynamics on Validation of Linear Models for Space Launch System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pei, Jing; Derry, Stephen D.; Zhou Zhiqiang; Newsom, Jerry R.

2014-01-01

A feasibility study was performed to examine the advisability of incorporating a set of Programmed Test Inputs (PTIs) during the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle flight. The intent of these inputs is to provide validation to the preflight models for control system stability margins, aerodynamics, and structural dynamics. During October 2009, Ares I-X program was successful in carrying out a series of PTI maneuvers which provided a significant amount of valuable data for post-flight analysis. The resulting data comparisons showed excellent agreement with the preflight linear models across the frequency spectrum of interest. However unlike Ares I-X, the structural dynamics associated with the SLS boost phase configuration are far more complex and highly coupled in all three axes. This presents a challenge when implementing this similar system identification technique to SLS. Preliminary simulation results show noticeable mismatches between PTI validation and analytical linear models in the frequency range of the structural dynamics. An alternate approach was examined which demonstrates the potential for better overall characterization of the system frequency response as well as robustness of the control design.

Gravity Probe B spacecraft description

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, Norman R.; Burns, Kevin; Katz, Russell; Kirschenbaum, Jon; Mason, Gary; Shehata, Shawky

2015-11-01

The Gravity Probe B spacecraft, developed, integrated, and tested by Lockheed Missiles & Space Company and later Lockheed Martin Corporation, consisted of structures, mechanisms, command and data handling, attitude and translation control, electrical power, thermal control, flight software, and communications. When integrated with the payload elements, the integrated system became the space vehicle. Key requirements shaping the design of the spacecraft were: (1) the tight mission timeline (17 months, 9 days of on-orbit operation), (2) precise attitude and translational control, (3) thermal protection of science hardware, (4) minimizing aerodynamic, magnetic, and eddy current effects, and (5) the need to provide a robust, low risk spacecraft. The spacecraft met all mission requirements, as demonstrated by dewar lifetime meeting specification, positive power and thermal margins, precision attitude control and drag-free performance, reliable communications, and the collection of more than 97% of the available science data.

STARS: a software application for the EBEX autonomous daytime star cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chapman, Daniel; Didier, Joy; Hanany, Shaul; Hillbrand, Seth; Limon, Michele; Miller, Amber; Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt; Tucker, Greg; Vinokurov, Yury

2014-07-01

The E and B Experiment (EBEX) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to probe polarization signals in the CMB resulting from primordial gravitational waves, gravitational lensing, and Galactic dust emission. EBEX completed an 11 day flight over Antarctica in January 2013 and data analysis is underway. EBEX employs two star cameras to achieve its real-time and post-flight pointing requirements. We wrote a software application called STARS to operate, command, and collect data from each of the star cameras, and to interface them with the main flight computer. We paid special attention to make the software robust against potential in-flight failures. We report on the implementation, testing, and successful in flight performance of STARS.

Comparison of frequency-domain and time-domain rotorcraft vibration control methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gupta, N. K.

1984-01-01

Active control of rotor-induced vibration in rotorcraft has received significant attention recently. Two classes of techniques have been proposed. The more developed approach works with harmonic analysis of measured time histories and is called the frequency-domain approach. The more recent approach computes the control input directly using the measured time history data and is called the time-domain approach. The report summarizes the results of a theoretical investigation to compare the two approaches. Five specific areas were addressed: (1) techniques to derive models needed for control design (system identification methods), (2) robustness with respect to errors, (3) transient response, (4) susceptibility to noise, and (5) implementation difficulties. The system identification methods are more difficult for the time-domain models. The time-domain approach is more robust (e.g., has higher gain and phase margins) than the frequency-domain approach. It might thus be possible to avoid doing real-time system identification in the time-domain approach by storing models at a number of flight conditions. The most significant error source is the variation in open-loop vibrations caused by pilot inputs, maneuvers or gusts. The implementation requirements are similar except that the time-domain approach can be much simpler to implement if real-time system identification were not necessary.

Assessment Study of the State of the Art in Adaptive Control and its Applications to Aircraft Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaufman, Howard

1998-01-01

Many papers relevant to reconfigurable flight control have appeared over the past fifteen years. In general these have consisted of theoretical issues, simulation experiments, and in some cases, actual flight tests. Results indicate that reconfiguration of flight controls is certainly feasible for a wide class of failures. However many of the proposed procedures although quite attractive, need further analytical and experimental studies for meaningful validation. Many procedures assume the availability of failure detection and identification logic that will supply adequately fast, the dynamics corresponding to the failed aircraft. This in general implies that the failure detection and fault identification logic must have access to all possible anticipated faults and the corresponding dynamical equations of motion. Unless some sort of explicit on line parameter identification is included, the computational demands could possibly be too excessive. This suggests the need for some form of adaptive control, either by itself as the prime procedure for control reconfiguration or in conjunction with the failure detection logic. If explicit or indirect adaptive control is used, then it is important that the identified models be such that the corresponding computed controls deliver adequate performance to the actual aircraft. Unknown changes in trim should be modelled, and parameter identification needs to be adequately insensitive to noise and at the same time capable of tracking abrupt changes. If however, both failure detection and system parameter identification turn out to be too time consuming in an emergency situation, then the concepts of direct adaptive control should be considered. If direct model reference adaptive control is to be used (on a linear model) with stability assurances, then a positive real or passivity condition needs to be satisfied for all possible configurations. This condition is often satisfied with a feedforward compensator around the plant. This compensator must be robustly designed such that the compensated plant satisfies the required positive real conditions over all expected parameter values. Furthermore, with the feedforward only around the plant, a nonzero (but bounded error) will exist in steady state between the plant and model outputs. This error can be removed by placing the compensator also in the reference model. Design of such a compensator should not be too difficult a problem since for flight control it is generally possible to feedback all the system states.

Integrated health management and control of complex dynamical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolani, Devendra K.

2005-11-01

A comprehensive control and health management strategy for human-engineered complex dynamical systems is formulated for achieving high performance and reliability over a wide range of operation. Results from diverse research areas such as Probabilistic Robust Control (PRC), Damage Mitigating/Life Extending Control (DMC), Discrete Event Supervisory (DES) Control, Symbolic Time Series Analysis (STSA) and Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) have been employed to achieve this goal. Continuous-domain control modules at the lower level are synthesized by PRC and DMC theories, whereas the upper-level supervision is based on DES control theory. In the PRC approach, by allowing different levels of risk under different flight conditions, the control system can achieve the desired trade off between stability robustness and nominal performance. In the DMC approach, component damage is incorporated in the control law to reduce the damage rate for enhanced structural durability. The DES controller monitors the system performance and, based on the mission requirements (e.g., performance metrics and level of damage mitigation), switches among various lower-level controllers. The core idea is to design a framework where the DES controller at the upper-level, mimics human intelligence and makes appropriate decisions to satisfy mission requirements, enhance system performance and structural durability. Recently developed tools in STSA have been used for anomaly detection and failure prognosis. The DMC deals with the usage monitoring or operational control part of health management, where as the issue of health monitoring is addressed by the anomaly detection tools. The proposed decision and control architecture has been validated on two test-beds, simulating the operations of rotorcraft dynamics and aircraft propulsion.

Investigation of air transportation technology at Princeton University, 1992-1993

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1994-01-01

The Air Transportation Research Program at Princeton University proceeded along five avenues during the past year: (1) Flight Control System Robustness; (2) Microburst Hazards to Aircraft; (3) Wind Rotor Hazards to Aircraft; (4) Intelligent Aircraft/Airspace Systems; and (5) Aerospace Optical Communications. This research resulted in a number of publications, including theses, archival papers, and conference papers. An annotated bibliography of publications that appeared between June 1992 and June 1993 is included. The research that these papers describe was supported in whole or in part by the Joint University Program, including work that was completed prior to the reporting period.

Neural network based adaptive control for nonlinear dynamic regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Yoonghyun

Adaptive control designs using neural networks (NNs) based on dynamic inversion are investigated for aerospace vehicles which are operated at highly nonlinear dynamic regimes. NNs play a key role as the principal element of adaptation to approximately cancel the effect of inversion error, which subsequently improves robustness to parametric uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics in nonlinear regimes. An adaptive control scheme previously named 'composite model reference adaptive control' is further developed so that it can be applied to multi-input multi-output output feedback dynamic inversion. It can have adaptive elements in both the dynamic compensator (linear controller) part and/or in the conventional adaptive controller part, also utilizing state estimation information for NN adaptation. This methodology has more flexibility and thus hopefully greater potential than conventional adaptive designs for adaptive flight control in highly nonlinear flight regimes. The stability of the control system is proved through Lyapunov theorems, and validated with simulations. The control designs in this thesis also include the use of 'pseudo-control hedging' techniques which are introduced to prevent the NNs from attempting to adapt to various actuation nonlinearities such as actuator position and rate saturations. Control allocation is introduced for the case of redundant control effectors including thrust vectoring nozzles. A thorough comparison study of conventional and NN-based adaptive designs for a system under a limit cycle, wing-rock, is included in this research, and the NN-based adaptive control designs demonstrate their performances for two highly maneuverable aerial vehicles, NASA F-15 ACTIVE and FQM-117B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), operated under various nonlinearities and uncertainties.

DataComm in Flight Deck Surface Trajectory-Based Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bakowski, Deborah L.; Foyle, David C.; Hooey, Becky L.; Meyer, Glenn R.; Wolter, Cynthia A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this pilot-in-the-loop aircraft taxi simulation was to evaluate a NextGen concept for surface trajectory-based operations (STBO) in which air traffic control (ATC) issued taxi clearances with a required time of arrival (RTA) by Data Communications (DataComm). Flight deck avionics, driven by an error-nulling algorithm, displayed the speed needed to meet the RTA. To ensure robustness of the algorithm, the ability of 10 two-pilot crews to meet the RTA was tested in nine experimental trials representing a range of realistic conditions including a taxi route change, an RTA change, a departure clearance change, and a crossing traffic hold scenario. In some trials, these DataComm taxi clearances or clearance modifications were accompanied by 'preview' information, in which the airport map display showed a preview of the proposed route changes, including the necessary speed to meet the RTA. Overall, the results of this study show that with the aid of the RTA speed algorithm, pilots were able to meet their RTAs with very little time error in all of the robustness-testing scenarios. Results indicated that when taxi clearance changes were issued by DataComm only, pilots required longer notification distances than with voice communication. However, when the DataComm was accompanied by graphical preview, the notification distance required by pilots was equivalent to that for voice.

DataComm in Flight Deck Surface Trajectory-Based Operations. Chapter 20

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bakowski, Deborah L.; Foyle, David C.; Hooey, Becky L.; Meyer, Glenn R.; Wolter, Cynthia A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this pilot-in-the-loop aircraft taxi simulation was to evaluate a NextGen concept for surface trajectory-based operations (STBO) in which air traffic control (ATC) issued taxi clearances with a required time of arrival (RTA) by Data Communications (DataComm). Flight deck avionics, driven by an error-nulling algorithm, displayed the speed needed to meet the RTA. To ensure robustness of the algorithm, the ability of 10 two-pilot crews to meet the RTA was tested in nine experimental trials representing a range of realistic conditions including a taxi route change, an RTA change, a departure clearance change, and a crossing traffic hold scenario. In some trials, these DataComm taxi clearances or clearance modifications were accompanied by preview information, in which the airport map display showed a preview of the proposed route changes, including the necessary speed to meet the RTA. Overall, the results of this study show that with the aid of the RTA speed algorithm, pilots were able to meet their RTAs with very little time error in all of the robustness-testing scenarios. Results indicated that when taxi clearance changes were issued by DataComm only, pilots required longer notification distances than with voice communication. However, when the DataComm was accompanied by graphical preview, the notification distance required by pilots was equivalent to that for voice.

An Evaluation of Training Interventions and Computed Scoring Techniques for Grading a Level Turn Task and a Straight In Landing Approach on a PC-Based Flight Simulator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heath, Bruce E.

2007-01-01

One result of the relatively recent advances in computing technology has been the decreasing cost of computers and increasing computational power. This has allowed high fidelity airplane simulations to be run on personal computers (PC). Thus, simulators are now used routinely by pilots to substitute real flight hours for simulated flight hours for training for an aircraft type rating thereby reducing the cost of flight training. However, FAA regulations require that such substitution training must be supervised by Certified Flight Instructors (CFI). If the CFI presence could be reduced or eliminated for certain tasks this would mean a further cost savings to the pilot. This would require that the flight simulator have a certain level of 'intelligence' in order to provide feedback on pilot perfolmance similar to that of a CFI. The 'intelligent' flight sinlulator would have at least the capability to use data gathered from the flight to create a measure for the performance of the student pilot. Also, to fully utilize the advances in computational power, the sinlulator would be capable of interacting with the student pilot using the best possible training interventions. This thesis reposts on the two studies conducted at Tuskegee University investigating the effects of interventions on the learning of two flight maneuvers on a flight sinlulator and the robustness and accuracy of calculated perfornlance indices as compared to CFI evaluations of performance. The intent of these studies is to take a step in the direction of creating an 'intelligent' flight simulator. The first study deals with the comparisons of novice pilot performance trained at different levels of above real-time to execute a level S-turn. The second study examined the effect of out-of-the-window (OTW) visual cues in the form of hoops on the performance of novice pilots learning to fly a landing approach on the flight simulator. The reliability/robustness of the computed performance metrics was assessed by comparing them with the evaluations of the landing approach maneuver by a number of CFIs.

Development and Assessment of a Novel Training Package for Basic Maneuvering Tasks on a Flight Simulator Using Self Instruction Methods and Above Real Time Training (ARTT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ali, Syed Firasat; Khan, M. Javed; Rossi, Marcia J.; Heath, Bruce e.; Crane, Peter; Ward, Marcus; Crier, Tomyka; Knighten, Tremaine; Culpepper, Christi

2007-01-01

One result of the relatively recent advances in computing technology has been the decreasing cost of computers and increasing computational power. This has allowed high fidelity airplane simulations to be run on personal computers (PC). Thus, simulators are now used routinely by pilots to substitute real flight hours for simulated flight hours for training for an aircraft type rating thereby reducing the cost of flight training. However, FAA regulations require that such substitution training must be supervised by Certified Flight Instructors (CFI). If the CFI presence could be reduced or eliminated for certain tasks this would mean a further cost savings to the pilot. This would require that the flight simulator have a certain level of 'intelligence' in order to provide feedback on pilot performance similar to that of a CFI. The 'intelligent' flight simulator would have at least the capability to use data gathered from the flight to create a measure for the performance of the student pilot. Also, to fully utilize the advances in computational power, the simulator would be capable of interacting with the student pilot using the best possible training interventions. This thesis reports on the two studies conducted at Tuskegee University investigating the effects of interventions on the learning of two flight maneuvers on a flight simulator and the robustness and accuracy of calculated performance indices as compared to CFI evaluations of performance. The intent of these studies is to take a step in the direction of creating an 'intelligent' flight simulator. The first study deals with the comparisons of novice pilot performance trained at different levels of above real-time to execute a level S-turn. The second study examined the effect of out-of-the-window (OTW) visual cues in the form of hoops on the performance of novice pilots learning to fly a landing approach on the flight simulator. The reliability/robustness of the computed performance metrics was assessed by comparing them with the evaluations of the landing approach maneuver by a number of CFIs.

Automatic control design procedures for restructurable aircraft control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Looze, D. P.; Krolewski, S.; Weiss, J.; Barrett, N.; Eterno, J.

1985-01-01

A simple, reliable automatic redesign procedure for restructurable control is discussed. This procedure is based on Linear Quadratic (LQ) design methodologies. It employs a robust control system design for the unfailed aircraft to minimize the effects of failed surfaces and to extend the time available for restructuring the Flight Control System. The procedure uses the LQ design parameters for the unfailed system as a basis for choosing the design parameters of the failed system. This philosophy alloys the engineering trade-offs that were present in the nominal design to the inherited by the restructurable design. In particular, it alloys bandwidth limitations and performance trade-offs to be incorporated in the redesigned system. The procedure also has several other desirable features. It effectively redistributes authority among the available control effectors to maximize the system performance subject to actuator limitations and constraints. It provides a graceful performance degradation as the amount of control authority lessens. When given the parameters of the unfailed aircraft, the automatic redesign procedure reproduces the nominal control system design.

A design procedure for the handling qualities optimization of the X-29A aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosworth, John T.; Cox, Timothy H.

1989-01-01

A design technique for handling qualities improvement was developed for the X-29A aircraft. As with any new aircraft, the X-29A control law designers were presented with a relatively high degree of uncertainty in their mathematical models. The presence of uncertainties, and the high level of static instability of the X-29A caused the control law designers to stress stability and robustness over handling qualities. During flight test, the mathematical models of the vehicle were validated or corrected to match the vehicle dynamic behavior. The updated models were then used to fine tune the control system to provide fighter-like handling characteristics. A design methodology was developed which works within the existing control system architecture to provide improved handling qualities and acceptable stability with a minimum of cost in both implementation as well as software verification and validation.

Proceedings from the 2nd International Symposium on Formation Flying Missions and Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

Topics discussed include: The Stellar Imager (SI) "Vision Mission"; First Formation Flying Demonstration Mission Including on Flight Nulling; Formation Flying X-ray Telescope in L2 Orbit; SPECS: The Kilometer-baseline Far-IR Interferometer in NASA's Space Science Roadmap Presentation; A Tight Formation for Along-track SAR Interferometry; Realization of the Solar Power Satellite using the Formation Flying Solar Reflector; SIMBOL-X : Formation Flying for High-Energy Astrophysics; High Precision Optical Metrology for DARWIN; Close Formation Flight of Micro-Satellites for SAR Interferometry; Station-Keeping Requirements for Astronomical Imaging with Constellations of Free-Flying Collectors; Closed-Loop Control of Formation Flying Satellites; Formation Control for the MAXIM Mission; Precision Formation Keeping at L2 Using the Autonomous Formation Flying Sensor; Robust Control of Multiple Spacecraft Formation Flying; Virtual Rigid Body (VRB) Satellite Formation Control: Stable Mode-Switching and Cross-Coupling; Electromagnetic Formation Flight (EMFF) System Design, Mission Capabilities, and Testbed Development; Navigation Algorithms for Formation Flying Missions; Use of Formation Flying Small Satellites Incorporating OISL's in a Tandem Cluster Mission; Semimajor Axis Estimation Strategies; Relative Attitude Determination of Earth Orbiting Formations Using GPS Receivers; Analysis of Formation Flying in Eccentric Orbits Using Linearized Equations of Relative Motion; Conservative Analytical Collision Probabilities for Orbital Formation Flying; Equations of Motion and Stability of Two Spacecraft in Formation at the Earth/Moon Triangular Libration Points; Formations Near the Libration Points: Design Strategies Using Natural and Non-Natural Ares; An Overview of the Formation and Attitude Control System for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Formation Flying Interferometer; GVE-Based Dynamics and Control for Formation Flying Spacecraft; GNC System Design for a New Concept of X-Ray Distributed Telescope; GNC System for the Deployment and Fine Control of the DARWIN Free-Flying Interferometer; Formation Algorithm and Simulation Testbed; and PLATFORM: A Formation Flying, RvD and Robotic Validation Test-bench.

Aeroelastic stability analysis of a large civil aircraft equipped with morphing winglets and adaptive flap tabs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pecora, R.; Amoroso, F.; Noviello, M. C.; Dimino, I.; Concilio, A.

2018-03-01

The in-flight control of the wing shape is widely considered as one of the most promising solutions to enhance the aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft thus minimizing the fuel burnt per mission ([1]-[26]). In force of the fallout that the implementation of such a technology might have on the greening of the next generation air transport, ever increasing efforts are spent worldwide to investigate on robust solutions actually compliant with industrial standards and applicable airworthiness requirements. In the framework of the CleanSky2, a research program in aeronautics among the largest ever founded by the European Union, the authors focused on the design and validation of two devices enabling the camber-morphing of winglets and flaps specifically tailored for EASA CS-25 category aircraft ([29]). The shape transition was obtained through smart architectures based on segmented (finger-like) ribs with embedded electromechanical actuators. The combined actions of the two smart systems was conceived to modulate the load distribution along the wing while keeping it optimal at all flight conditions with unequalled benefits in terms of lift-over-drag ratio increase and root bending moment alleviation. Although characterized by a quasi-static actuation, and not used as primary control surfaces, the devices were deeply analysed with reference to their impact on aircraft aeroelastic stability. Rational approaches were adopted to duly capture their dynamics through a relevant number of elastic modes; aeroelastic coupling mechanisms were identified in nominal operative conditions as well as in case of systems' malfunctioning or failure. Trade off flutter and divergence analyses were finally carried out to assess the robustness of the adopted solutions in terms of movable parts layout, massbalancing and actuators damping.

Aerobot Autonomy Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elfes, Alberto; Hall, Jeffery L.; Kulczycki, Eric A.; Cameron, Jonathan M.; Morfopoulos, Arin C.; Clouse, Daniel S.; Montgomery, James F.; Ansar, Adnan I.; Machuzak, Richard J.

2009-01-01

An architecture for autonomous operation of an aerobot (i.e., a robotic blimp) to be used in scientific exploration of planets and moons in the Solar system with an atmosphere (such as Titan and Venus) is undergoing development. This architecture is also applicable to autonomous airships that could be flown in the terrestrial atmosphere for scientific exploration, military reconnaissance and surveillance, and as radio-communication relay stations in disaster areas. The architecture was conceived to satisfy requirements to perform the following functions: a) Vehicle safing, that is, ensuring the integrity of the aerobot during its entire mission, including during extended communication blackouts. b) Accurate and robust autonomous flight control during operation in diverse modes, including launch, deployment of scientific instruments, long traverses, hovering or station-keeping, and maneuvers for touch-and-go surface sampling. c) Mapping and self-localization in the absence of a global positioning system. d) Advanced recognition of hazards and targets in conjunction with tracking of, and visual servoing toward, targets, all to enable the aerobot to detect and avoid atmospheric and topographic hazards and to identify, home in on, and hover over predefined terrain features or other targets of scientific interest. The architecture is an integrated combination of systems for accurate and robust vehicle and flight trajectory control; estimation of the state of the aerobot; perception-based detection and avoidance of hazards; monitoring of the integrity and functionality ("health") of the aerobot; reflexive safing actions; multi-modal localization and mapping; autonomous planning and execution of scientific observations; and long-range planning and monitoring of the mission of the aerobot. The prototype JPL aerobot (see figure) has been tested extensively in various areas in the California Mojave desert.

Profiling analysis of low molecular weight heparins by multiple heart-cutting two dimensional chromatography with quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Ouyang, Yilan; Zeng, Yangyang; Rong, Yinxiu; Song, Yue; Shi, Lv; Chen, Bo; Yang, Xinlei; Xu, Naiyu; Linhardt, Robert J; Zhang, Zhenqing

2015-09-01

Low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) are polydisperse and microheterogenous mixtures of polysaccharides used as anticoagulant drugs. Profiling analysis is important for obtaining deeper insights into the structure of LMWHs. Previous oligosaccharide mapping methods are relatively low resolution and are unable to show an entire picture of the structural complexity of LMWHs. In the current study a profiling method was developed relying on multiple heart-cutting, two-dimensional, ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography with quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry. This represents an efficient, automated, and robust approach for profiling LMWHs. Using size-exclusion chromatography and ion-pairing reversed-phase chromatography in a two-dimensional separation, LMW components of different sizes and LMW components of the same size but with different charges and polarities can be resolved, providing a more complete picture of a LMWH. Structural information on each component was then obtained with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. More than 80 and 120 oligosaccharides were observed and unambiguously assigned from the LMWHs, nadroparin and enoxaparin, respectively. This method might be useful for quality control of LMWHs and as a powerful tool for heparin-related glycomics.

Model Order Reduction of Aeroservoelastic Model of Flexible Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Yi; Song, Hongjun; Pant, Kapil; Brenner, Martin J.; Suh, Peter

2016-01-01

This paper presents a holistic model order reduction (MOR) methodology and framework that integrates key technological elements of sequential model reduction, consistent model representation, and model interpolation for constructing high-quality linear parameter-varying (LPV) aeroservoelastic (ASE) reduced order models (ROMs) of flexible aircraft. The sequential MOR encapsulates a suite of reduction techniques, such as truncation and residualization, modal reduction, and balanced realization and truncation to achieve optimal ROMs at grid points across the flight envelope. The consistence in state representation among local ROMs is obtained by the novel method of common subspace reprojection. Model interpolation is then exploited to stitch ROMs at grid points to build a global LPV ASE ROM feasible to arbitrary flight condition. The MOR method is applied to the X-56A MUTT vehicle with flexible wing being tested at NASA/AFRC for flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. Our studies demonstrated that relative to the fullorder model, our X-56A ROM can accurately and reliably capture vehicles dynamics at various flight conditions in the target frequency regime while the number of states in ROM can be reduced by 10X (from 180 to 19), and hence, holds great promise for robust ASE controller synthesis and novel vehicle design.

Initial Flight Test of the Production Support Flight Control Computers at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carter, John; Stephenson, Mark

1999-01-01

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has completed the initial flight test of a modified set of F/A-18 flight control computers that gives the aircraft a research control law capability. The production support flight control computers (PSFCC) provide an increased capability for flight research in the control law, handling qualities, and flight systems areas. The PSFCC feature a research flight control processor that is "piggybacked" onto the baseline F/A-18 flight control system. This research processor allows for pilot selection of research control law operation in flight. To validate flight operation, a replication of a standard F/A-18 control law was programmed into the research processor and flight-tested over a limited envelope. This paper provides a brief description of the system, summarizes the initial flight test of the PSFCC, and describes future experiments for the PSFCC.

NASA Research on an Integrated Concept for Airport Surface Operations Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gupta, Gautam

2012-01-01

Surface operations at airports in the US are based on tactical operations, where departure aircraft primarily queue up and wait at the departure runways. There have been attempts to address the resulting inefficiencies with both strategic and tactical tools for metering departure aircraft. This presentation gives an overview of Spot And Runway Departure Advisor with Collaborative Decision Making (SARDA-CDM): an integrated strategic and tactical system for improving surface operations by metering departure aircraft. SARDA-CDM is the augmentation of ground and local controller advisories through sharing of flight movement and related operations information between airport operators, flight operators and air traffic control at the airport. The goal is to enhance the efficiency of airport surface operations by exchanging information between air traffic control and airline operators, while minimizing adverse effects on stakeholders and passengers. The presentation motivates the need for departure metering, and provides a brief background on the previous work on SARDA. Then, the concept of operations for SARDA-CDM is described. Then the preliminary results from testing the concept in a real-time automated simulation environment are described. Results indicate benefits such as reduction in taxiing delay and fuel consumption. Further, the preliminary implementation of SARDA-CDM seems robust for two minutes delay in gate push-back times.

Optimal Recursive Digital Filters for Active Bending Stabilization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orr, Jeb S.

2013-01-01

In the design of flight control systems for large flexible boosters, it is common practice to utilize active feedback control of the first lateral structural bending mode so as to suppress transients and reduce gust loading. Typically, active stabilization or phase stabilization is achieved by carefully shaping the loop transfer function in the frequency domain via the use of compensating filters combined with the frequency response characteristics of the nozzle/actuator system. In this paper we present a new approach for parameterizing and determining optimal low-order recursive linear digital filters so as to satisfy phase shaping constraints for bending and sloshing dynamics while simultaneously maximizing attenuation in other frequency bands of interest, e.g. near higher frequency parasitic structural modes. By parameterizing the filter directly in the z-plane with certain restrictions, the search space of candidate filter designs that satisfy the constraints is restricted to stable, minimum phase recursive low-pass filters with well-conditioned coefficients. Combined with optimal output feedback blending from multiple rate gyros, the present approach enables rapid and robust parametrization of autopilot bending filters to attain flight control performance objectives. Numerical results are presented that illustrate the application of the present technique to the development of rate gyro filters for an exploration-class multi-engined space launch vehicle.

Design and Flight Evaluation of a New Force-Based Flow Angle Probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Corda, Stephen; Vachon, Michael Jacob

2006-01-01

A novel force-based flow angle probe was designed and flight tested on the NASA F-15B Research Testbed aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The prototype flow angle probe is a small, aerodynamic fin that has no moving parts. Forces on the prototype flow angle probe are measured with strain gages and correlated with the local flow angle. The flow angle probe may provide greater simplicity, greater robustness, and better access to flow measurements in confined areas relative to conventional moving vane-type flow angle probes. Flight test data were obtained at subsonic, transonic, and supersonic Mach numbers to a maximum of Mach 1.70. Flight conditions included takeoff, landing, straight and level flight, flight at higher aircraft angles of attack, and flight at elevated g-loadings. Flight test maneuvers included angle-of-attack and angle-of-sideslip sweeps. The flow angle probe-derived flow angles are compared with those obtained with a conventional moving vane probe. The flight tests validated the feasibility of a force-based flow angle measurement system.

Upset Simulation and Training Initiatives for U.S. Navy Commercial Derived Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donaldson, Steven; Priest, James; Cunningham, Kevin; Foster, John V.

2012-01-01

Militarized versions of commercial platforms are growing in popularity due to many logistical benefits in the form of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts, established production methods, and commonality for different certifications. Commercial data and best practices are often leveraged to reduce procurement and engineering development costs. While the developmental and cost reduction benefits are clear, these militarized aircraft are routinely operated in flight at significantly different conditions and in significantly different manners than for routine commercial flight. Therefore they are at a higher risk of flight envelope exceedance. This risk may lead to departure from controlled flight and/or aircraft loss1. Historically, the risk of departure from controlled flight for military aircraft has been mitigated by piloted simulation training and engineering analysis of typical aircraft response. High-agility military aircraft simulation databases are typically developed to include high angles of attack (AoA) and sideslip due to the dynamic nature of their missions and have been developed for many tactical configurations over the previous decades. These aircraft simulations allow for a more thorough understanding of the vehicle flight dynamics characteristics at high AoA and sideslip. In recent years, government sponsored research on transport airplane aerodynamic characteristics at high angles of attack has produced a growing understanding of stall/post-stall behavior. This research along with recent commercial airline training initiatives has resulted in improved understanding of simulator-based training requirements and simulator model fidelity.2-5 In addition, inflight training research over the past decade has produced a database of pilot performance and recurrency metrics6. Innovative solutions to aerodynamically model large commercial aircraft for upset conditions such as high AoA, high sideslip, and ballistic damage, as well as capability to accurately account for scaling factors, is necessary to develop realistic engineering and training simulations. Such simulations should significantly reduce the risk of departure from controlled flight, loss of aircraft, and ease the airworthiness certification process. The characteristics of commercial derivative aircraft are exemplified by the P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) aircraft, and the largest benefits of initial investigation are likely to be yielded from this platform. The database produced would also be utilized by flight dynamics engineers as a means to further develop and investigate vehicle flight characteristics as mission tactics evolve through the years ahead. This paper will describe ongoing efforts by the U.S. Navy to develop a methodology for simulation and training for large commercial-derived transport aircraft at unusual attitudes, typically experienced during an aircraft upset. This methodology will be applied to a representative Navy aircraft (P-8A) and utilized to develop a robust simulation that should accurately represent aircraft response in these extremes. Simulation capabilities would then extend to flight dynamics analysis and simulation, as well as potential training applications. Recent evaluations of integrated academic, ground-based simulation, and in-flight upset training will be described along with important lessons learned, specific to military requirements.

3-Axis magnetic control: flight results of the TANGO satellite in the PRISMA mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chasset, C.; Noteborn, R.; Bodin, P.; Larsson, R.; Jakobsson, B.

2013-09-01

PRISMA implements guidance, navigation and control strategies for advanced formation flying and rendezvous experiments. The project is funded by the Swedish National Space Board and run by OHB-Sweden in close cooperation with DLR, CNES and the Danish Technical University. The PRISMA test bed consists of a fully manoeuvrable MANGO satellite as well as a 3-axis controlled TANGO satellite without any Δ V capability. PRISMA was launched on the 15th of June 2010 on board DNEPR. The TANGO spacecraft is the reference satellite for the experiments performed by MANGO, either with a "cooperative" or "non-cooperative" behaviour. Small, light and low-cost were the keywords for the TANGO design. The attitude determination is based on Sun sensors and magnetometers, and the active attitude control uses magnetic torque rods only. In order to perform the attitude manoeuvres required to fulfil the mission objectives, using any additional gravity gradient boom to passively stabilize the spacecraft was not allowed. After a two-month commissioning phase, TANGO separated from MANGO on the 11th of August 2010. All operational modes have been successfully tested, and the pointing performance in flight is in accordance with expectations. The robust Sun Acquisition mode reduced the initial tip-off rate and placed TANGO into a safe attitude in <30 min. The Manual Pointing mode was commissioned, and the spacecraft demonstrated the capability to follow or maintain different sets of attitudes. In Sun/Zenith Pointing mode, TANGO points its GPS antenna towards zenith with sufficient accuracy to track as many GPS satellites as MANGO. At the same time, it points its solar panel towards the Sun, and all payload equipments can be switched on without any restriction. This paper gives an overview of the TANGO Attitude Control System design. It then presents the flight results in the different operating modes. Finally, it highlights the key elements at the origin of the successful 3-axis magnetic control strategy on the TANGO satellite.

A Self-Tuning Kalman Filter for Autonomous Spacecraft Navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truong, Son H.

1998-01-01

Most navigation systems currently operated by NASA are ground-based, and require extensive support to produce accurate results. Recently developed systems that use Kalman Filter and Global Positioning System (GPS) data for orbit determination greatly reduce dependency on ground support, and have potential to provide significant economies for NASA spacecraft navigation. Current techniques of Kalman filtering, however, still rely on manual tuning from analysts, and cannot help in optimizing autonomy without compromising accuracy and performance. This paper presents an approach to produce a high accuracy autonomous navigation system fully integrated with the flight system. The resulting system performs real-time state estimation by using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) implemented with high-fidelity state dynamics model, as does the GPS Enhanced Orbit Determination Experiment (GEODE) system developed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Augmented to the EKF is a sophisticated neural-fuzzy system, which combines the explicit knowledge representation of fuzzy logic with the learning power of neural networks. The fuzzy-neural system performs most of the self-tuning capability and helps the navigation system recover from estimation errors. The core requirement is a method of state estimation that handles uncertainties robustly, capable of identifying estimation problems, flexible enough to make decisions and adjustments to recover from these problems, and compact enough to run on flight hardware. The resulting system can be extended to support geosynchronous spacecraft and high-eccentricity orbits. Mathematical methodology, systems and operations concepts, and implementation of a system prototype are presented in this paper. Results from the use of the prototype to evaluate optimal control algorithms implemented are discussed. Test data and major control issues (e.g., how to define specific roles for fuzzy logic to support the self-learning capability) are also discussed. In addition, architecture of a complete end-to-end candidate flight system that provides navigation with highly autonomous control using data from GPS is presented.

Bio-inspired sensing and control for disturbance rejection and stabilization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gremillion, Gregory; Humbert, James S.

2015-05-01

The successful operation of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in dynamic environments demands robust stability in the presence of exogenous disturbances. Flying insects are sensor-rich platforms, with highly redundant arrays of sensors distributed across the insect body that are integrated to extract rich information with diminished noise. This work presents a novel sensing framework in which measurements from an array of accelerometers distributed across a simulated flight vehicle are linearly combined to directly estimate the applied forces and torques with improvements in SNR. In simulation, the estimation performance is quantified as a function of sensor noise level, position estimate error, and sensor quantity.

The autonomous sciencecraft constellations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, R. L.; Chien, S.; Castano, R.; Rabideau, G.

2003-01-01

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) will fly onboard the Air Force TechSat 21 constellation of three spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2006. ASE uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, model-based mode identification and reconfiguration, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting. In this paper we discuss how these AI technologies are synergistically integrated in a hybrid multi-layer control architecture to enable a virtual spacecraft science agent. Demonstration of these capabilities in a flight environment will open up tremendous new opportunities in planetary science, space physics, and earth science that would be unreachable without this technology.

Mars Science Laboratory Flight Software Boot Robustness Testing Project Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roth, Brian

2011-01-01

On the surface of Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory will boot up its flight computers every morning, having charged the batteries through the night. This boot process is complicated, critical, and affected by numerous hardware states that can be difficult to test. The hardware test beds do not facilitate testing a long duration of back-to-back unmanned automated tests, and although the software simulation has provided the necessary functionality and fidelity for this boot testing, there has not been support for the full flexibility necessary for this task. Therefore to perform this testing a framework has been build around the software simulation that supports running automated tests loading a variety of starting configurations for software and hardware states. This implementation has been tested against the nominal cases to validate the methodology, and support for configuring off-nominal cases is ongoing. The implication of this testing is that the introduction of input configurations that have yet proved difficult to test may reveal boot scenarios worth higher fidelity investigation, and in other cases increase confidence in the robustness of the flight software boot process.

Tuning and Robustness Analysis for the Orion Absolute Navigation System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holt, Greg N.; Zanetti, Renato; D'Souza, Christopher

2013-01-01

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is currently under development as NASA's next-generation spacecraft for exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit. The MPCV is set to perform an orbital test flight, termed Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), some time in late 2014. The navigation system for the Orion spacecraft is being designed in a Multi-Organizational Design Environment (MODE) team including contractor and NASA personnel. The system uses an Extended Kalman Filter to process measurements and determine the state. The design of the navigation system has undergone several iterations and modifications since its inception, and continues as a work-in-progress. This paper seeks to show the efforts made to-date in tuning the filter for the EFT-1 mission and instilling appropriate robustness into the system to meet the requirements of manned space ight. Filter performance is affected by many factors: data rates, sensor measurement errors, tuning, and others. This paper focuses mainly on the error characterization and tuning portion. Traditional efforts at tuning a navigation filter have centered around the observation/measurement noise and Gaussian process noise of the Extended Kalman Filter. While the Orion MODE team must certainly address those factors, the team is also looking at residual edit thresholds and measurement underweighting as tuning tools. Tuning analysis is presented with open loop Monte-Carlo simulation results showing statistical errors bounded by the 3-sigma filter uncertainty covariance. The Orion filter design uses 24 Exponentially Correlated Random Variable (ECRV) parameters to estimate the accel/gyro misalignment and nonorthogonality. By design, the time constant and noise terms of these ECRV parameters were set to manufacturer specifications and not used as tuning parameters. They are included in the filter as a more analytically correct method of modeling uncertainties than ad-hoc tuning of the process noise. Tuning is explored for the powered-flight ascent phase, where measurements are scarce and unmodelled vehicle accelerations dominate. On orbit, there are important trade-off cases between process and measurement noise. On entry, there are considerations about trading performance accuracy for robustness. Process Noise is divided into powered flight and coasting ight and can be adjusted for each phase and mode of the Orion EFT-1 mission. Measurement noise is used for the integrated velocity measurements during pad alignment. It is also used for Global Positioning System (GPS) pseudorange and delta- range measurements during the rest of the flight. The robustness effort has been focused on maintaining filter convergence and performance in the presence of unmodeled error sources. These include unmodeled forces on the vehicle and uncorrected errors on the sensor measurements. Orion uses a single-frequency, non-keyed GPS receiver, so the effects due to signal distortion in Earth's ionosphere and troposphere are present in the raw measurements. Results are presented showing the efforts to compensate for these errors as well as characterize the residual effect for measurement noise tuning. Another robustness tool in use is tuning the residual edit thresholds. The trade-off between noise tuning and edit thresholds is explored in the context of robustness to errors in dynamics models and sensor measurements. Measurement underweighting is also presented as a method of additional robustness when processing highly accurate measurements in the presence of large filter uncertainties.

Wavelet Applications for Flight Flutter Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, Rick; Brenner, Marty; Freudinger, Lawrence C.

1999-01-01

Wavelets present a method for signal processing that may be useful for analyzing responses of dynamical systems. This paper describes several wavelet-based tools that have been developed to improve the efficiency of flight flutter testing. One of the tools uses correlation filtering to identify properties of several modes throughout a flight test for envelope expansion. Another tool uses features in time-frequency representations of responses to characterize nonlinearities in the system dynamics. A third tool uses modulus and phase information from a wavelet transform to estimate modal parameters that can be used to update a linear model and reduce conservatism in robust stability margins.

Development of a bio-inspired UAV perching system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Pu

Although technologies of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) including micro air vehicles (MAVs) have been greatly advanced in the recent years, it is still very difficult for a UAV to perform some very challenging tasks such as perching to any desired spot reliably and agilely like a bird. Unlike the UAVs, the biological control mechanism of birds has been optimized through millions of year evolution and hence, they can perform many extremely maneuverability tasks, such as perching or grasping accurately and robustly. Therefore, we have good reason to learn from the nature in order to significantly improve the capabilities of UAVs. The development of a UAV perching system is becoming feasible, especially after a lot of research contributions in ornithology which involve the analysis of the bird's functionalities. Meanwhile, as technology advances in many engineering fields, such as airframes, propulsion, sensors, batteries, micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS), and UAV technology is also advancing rapidly. All of these research efforts in ornithology and the fast growing development technologies in UAV applications are motivating further interests and development in the area of UAV perching and grasping research. During the last decade, the research contributions about UAV perching and grasping were mainly based on fixed-wing, flapping-wing, and rotorcraft UAVs. However, most of the current researches in UAV systems with perching and grasping capability are focusing on either active (powered) grasping and perching or passive (unpowered) perching. Although birds do have both active and passive perching capabilities depending on their needs, there is no UAV perching system with both capabilities. In this project, we focused on filling this gap. Inspired by the anatomy analysis of bird legs and feet, a novel perching system has been developed to implement the bionics action for both active grasping and passive perching. In addition, for developing a robust and autonomous perching system, the following objectives were included for this project. The statics model was derived through both quasi-static and analytical method. The grasping stable condition and grasping target of the mechanical gripper were studied through the static analysis. Furthermore, the contact behavior between each foot and the perched object was modeled and evaluated on SimMechanics based on the contact force model derived through virtual principle. The kinematics modeling of UAV perching system was governed with Euler angles and quaternions. Also the propulsion model of the brushless motors was introduced and calibrated. In addition, the flight dynamics model of the UAV system was developed for simulation-based analysis prior to developing a hardware prototype and flight experiment. A special inertial measurement unit (IMU) was designed which has the capability of indirectly calculating the angular acceleration from the angular velocity and the linear acceleration readings. Moreover, a commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) autopilot-APM 2.6 was selected for the autonomous flight control of the quadrotor. The APM 2.6 is a complete open source autopilot system, which allows the user to turn any fixed, rotary wing or multi-rotor vehicle into a fully autonomous vehicle and capable of performing programmed GPS missions with pre-programed waypoints. In addition, algorithms for inverted pendulum control and autonomous perching control was introduced. The proportion-integrate-differential (PID) controller was used for the simplified UAV perching with inverted pendulum model for horizontal balance. The performance of the controller was verified through both simulation and experiment. In addition, for the purpose of achieving the autonomous perching, guidance and control algorithms were developed the UAV perching system. For guidance, the desired flight trajectory was developed based on a bio-behavioral tau theory which was established from studying the natural motion patterns of animals and human arms approaching to a fixed or moving target for grasping or capturing. The autonomous flight control was also implemented through a PID controller. Autonomous flight performance was proved through simulation in SimMechanics. Finally, the prototyping of our designs were conducted in different generations of our bio-inspired UAV perching system, which include the leg prototype, gripper prototype, and system prototype. Both the machined prototype and 3D printed prototype were tried. The performance of these prototypes was tested through experiments.

Reproductive phenologies in a diverse temperate ant fauna

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dunn, R.R.; Parker, C.R.; Geraghty, M.; Sanders, N.J.

2007-01-01

1. Ant nuptial flights are central to understanding ant life history and ecology but have been little studied. This study examined the timing of nuptial flights, the synchronicity of nuptial flights (as a potential index of mating strategy), and variation in nuptial flights with elevation and among years in a diverse temperate ant fauna. 2. Flights occurred throughout the year, but were concentrated in the beginning of summer and in early fall (autumn). Relative to the entire flight season, closely related species tended to be more likely than expected by chance to fly at similar times, perhaps because of phylogenetic constraints on life history evolution. 3. Flights were relatively synchronous within species for nearly all species considered, but synchronicity did not appear to be a robust estimate of overall mating strategy. 4. Overall patterns in nuptial flights among species and the timing of flights for individual species varied with elevation, but did not vary greatly among years. 5. Although this study is one of the most comprehensive on the reproductive flight phenologies of ants, much remains to be learned about the causes and consequences of such spatial and temporal variation in flight phenology. ?? 2007 The Royal Entomological Society.

Full-scale flight tests of aircraft morphing structures using SMA actuators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mabe, James H.; Calkins, Frederick T.; Ruggeri, Robert T.

2007-04-01

In August of 2005 The Boeing Company conducted a full-scale flight test utilizing Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators to morph an engine's fan exhaust to correlate exhaust geometry with jet noise reduction. The test was conducted on a 777-300ER with GE-115B engines. The presence of chevrons, serrated aerodynamic surfaces mounted at the trailing edge of the thrust reverser, have been shown to greatly reduce jet noise by encouraging advantageous mixing of the free, and fan streams. The morphing, or Variable Geometry Chevrons (VGC), utilized compact, light weight, and robust SMA actuators to morph the chevron shape to optimize the noise reduction or meet acoustic test objectives. The VGC system was designed for two modes of operation. The entirely autonomous operation utilized changes in the ambient temperature from take-off to cruise to activate the chevron shape change. It required no internal heaters, wiring, control system, or sensing. By design this provided one tip immersion at the warmer take-off temperatures to reduce community noise and another during the cooler cruise state for more efficient engine operation, i.e. reduced specific fuel consumption. For the flight tests a powered mode was added where internal heaters were used to individually control the VGC temperatures. This enabled us to vary the immersions and test a variety of chevron configurations. The flight test demonstrated the value of SMA actuators to solve a real world aerospace problem, validated that the technology could be safely integrated into the airplane's structure and flight system, and represented a large step forward in the realization of SMA actuators for production applications. In this paper the authors describe the development of the actuator system, the steps required to integrate the morphing structure into the thrust reverser, and the analysis and testing that was required to gain approval for flight. Issues related to material strength, thermal environment, vibration, electrical power, controls, data acquisition, and engine operability are discussed. Furthermore the authors layout a road map for the next stage of development of SMA aerospace actuators. A detailed look at the requirements and specifications that may define a production SMA actuator and the technology development required to meet them are presented. A path for meeting production requirements and achieving the next level of technology readiness for both autonomous and controlled SMA actuators is proposed. This path relies strongly on cross functional and organizational teaming including industry, academia, and government.

A method to stabilize linear systems using eigenvalue gradient information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wieseman, C. D.

1985-01-01

Formal optimization methods and eigenvalue gradient information are used to develop a stabilizing control law for a closed loop linear system that is initially unstable. The method was originally formulated by using direct, constrained optimization methods with the constraints being the real parts of the eigenvalues. However, because of problems in trying to achieve stabilizing control laws, the problem was reformulated to be solved differently. The method described uses the Davidon-Fletcher-Powell minimization technique to solve an indirect, constrained minimization problem in which the performance index is the Kreisselmeier-Steinhauser function of the real parts of all the eigenvalues. The method is applied successfully to solve two different problems: the determination of a fourth-order control law stabilizes a single-input single-output active flutter suppression system and the determination of a second-order control law for a multi-input multi-output lateral-directional flight control system. Various sets of design variables and initial starting points were chosen to show the robustness of the method.

Trusted Autonomy for Space Flight Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freed, Michael; Bonasso, Pete; Ingham, Mitch; Kortenkamp, David; Perix, John

2005-01-01

NASA has long supported research on intelligent control technologies that could allow space systems to operate autonomously or with reduced human supervision. Proposed uses range from automated control of entire space vehicles to mobile robots that assist or substitute for astronauts to vehicle systems such as life support that interact with other systems in complex ways and require constant vigilance. The potential for pervasive use of such technology to extend the kinds of missions that are possible in practice is well understood, as is its potential to radically improve the robustness, safety and productivity of diverse mission systems. Despite its acknowledged potential, intelligent control capabilities are rarely used in space flight systems. Perhaps the most famous example of intelligent control on a spacecraft is the Remote Agent system flown on the Deep Space One mission (1998 - 2001). However, even in this case, the role of the intelligent control element, originally intended to have full control of the spacecraft for the duration of the mission, was reduced to having partial control for a two-week non-critical period. Even this level of mission acceptance was exceptional. In most cases, mission managers consider intelligent control systems an unacceptable source of risk and elect not to fly them. Overall, the technology is not trusted. From the standpoint of those who need to decide whether to incorporate this technology, lack of trust is easy to understand. Intelligent high-level control means allowing software io make decisions that are too complex for conventional software. The decision-making behavior of these systems is often hard to understand and inspect, and thus hard to evaluate. Moreover, such software is typically designed and implemented either as a research product or custom-built for a particular mission. In the former case, software quality is unlikely to be adequate for flight qualification and the functionality provided by the system is likely driven largely by the need to publish innovative work. In the latter case, the mission represents the first use of the system, a risky proposition even for relatively simple software.

Digital control of magnetic bearings in a cryogenic cooler

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feeley, J.; Law, A.; Lind, F.

1990-01-01

This paper describes the design of a digital control system for control of magnetic bearings used in a spaceborne cryogenic cooler. The cooler was developed by Philips Laboratories for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Six magnetic bearing assemblies are used to levitate the piston, displacer, and counter-balance of the cooler. The piston and displacer are driven by linear motors in accordance with Stirling cycle thermodynamic principles to produce the desired cooling effect. The counter-balance is driven by a third linear motor to cancel motion induced forces that would otherwise be transmitted to the spacecraft. An analog control system is currently used for bearing control. The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibilities for improved performance using digital control. Areas for potential improvement include transient and steady state control characteristics, robustness, reliability, adaptability, alternate control modes, size, weight, and cost. The present control system is targeted for the Intel 80196 microcontroller family. The eventual introduction of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology to this problem may produce a unique and elegant solution both here and in related industrial problems.

Design and implementation of fuzzy logic controllers. Thesis Final Report, 27 Jul. 1992 - 1 Jan. 1993

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abihana, Osama A.; Gonzalez, Oscar R.

1993-01-01

The main objectives of our research are to present a self-contained overview of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, develop a methodology for control system design using fuzzy logic controllers, and to design and implement a fuzzy logic controller for a real system. We first present the fundamental concepts of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. Fuzzy sets and basic fuzzy operations are defined. In addition, for control systems, it is important to understand the concepts of linguistic values, term sets, fuzzy rule base, inference methods, and defuzzification methods. Second, we introduce a four-step fuzzy logic control system design procedure. The design procedure is illustrated via four examples, showing the capabilities and robustness of fuzzy logic control systems. This is followed by a tuning procedure that we developed from our design experience. Third, we present two Lyapunov based techniques for stability analysis. Finally, we present our design and implementation of a fuzzy logic controller for a linear actuator to be used to control the direction of the Free Flight Rotorcraft Research Vehicle at LaRC.

Flight Planning in the Cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flores, Sarah L.; Chapman, Bruce D.; Tung, Waye W.; Zheng, Yang

2011-01-01

This new interface will enable Principal Investigators (PIs), as well as UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) members to do their own flight planning and time estimation without having to request flight lines through the science coordinator. It uses an all-in-one Google Maps interface, a JPL hosted database, and PI flight requirements to design an airborne flight plan. The application will enable users to see their own flight plan being constructed interactively through a map interface, and then the flight planning software will generate all the files necessary for the flight. Afterward, the UAVSAR team can then complete the flight request, including calendaring and supplying requisite flight request files in the expected format for processing by NASA s airborne science program. Some of the main features of the interface include drawing flight lines on the map, nudging them, adding them to the current flight plan, and reordering them. The user can also search and select takeoff, landing, and intermediate airports. As the flight plan is constructed, all of its components are constantly being saved to the database, and the estimated flight times are updated. Another feature is the ability to import flight lines from previously saved flight plans. One of the main motivations was to make this Web application as simple and intuitive as possible, while also being dynamic and robust. This Web application can easily be extended to support other airborne instruments.

Robust nonlinear attitude control with disturbance compensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walchko, Kevin Jack

Attitude control of small spacecraft is a particularly important component for many missions in the space program: Hubble Space Telescope for observing the cosmos, GPS satellites for navigation, SeaWiFS for studying phytoplankton concentrations in the ocean, etc. Typically designers use proportional derivative control because it is simple to understand and implement. However this method lacks robustness in the presence of disturbances and uncertainties. Thus to improve the fidelity of this simulation, two disturbances were included, fuel slosh and solar snap. Fuel slosh is the unwanted movement of fuel inside of a fuel tank. The fuel slosh model used for the satellite represents each sloshing mode as a mass-spring-damper. The mass represents the wave of fuel that propagates across the tank, the damper represents the baffling that hinders the movement, and the spring represents the force imparted to the spacecraft when the wave impacts the tank wall. This formulation makes the incorporation of multiple modes of interest simple, which is an advance over the typical one sloshing mode, pendulum model. Thermally induce vibrations, or solar snap, occur as a satellite transitions form the day-to-night or night-to-day side of a planet. During this transition, there is a sudden change in the amount of heat flux to the solar panels and vibrations occur. Few authors have looked at the effects of solar snap. The disturbance dynamics were based on the work by Earl Thorten. The simulated effects compared favorably with real flight data taken from satellites that have encountered solar snap. A robust sliding mode controller was developed and compared to a more traditional proportional derivative controller. The controllers were evaluated in the presents of fuel slosh and solar snap. The optimized baseline proportional derivative controller used in this work, showed little effort was needed to obtain better performance using sliding mode. In addition, a colored noise filter was developed to compensate for the fuel sloshing disturbance and incorporated into the sliding mode controller for greater performance increase at the expense of requiring a little more control effort.

14 CFR 25.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... Design and Construction Fire Protection § 25.865 Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Essential flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structures located in... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine...

14 CFR 25.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Design and Construction Fire Protection § 25.865 Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Essential flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structures located in... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine...

14 CFR 23.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. 23.865 Section 23.865 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION...

14 CFR 25.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Design and Construction Fire Protection § 25.865 Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Essential flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structures located in... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine...

14 CFR 23.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. 23.865 Section 23.865 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION...

14 CFR 23.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. 23.865 Section 23.865 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION...

14 CFR 23.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. 23.865 Section 23.865 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION...

14 CFR 25.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Design and Construction Fire Protection § 25.865 Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Essential flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structures located in... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine...

14 CFR 23.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. 23.865 Section 23.865 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION...

14 CFR 25.865 - Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Design and Construction Fire Protection § 25.865 Fire protection of flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structure. Essential flight controls, engine mounts, and other flight structures located in... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Fire protection of flight controls, engine...

Mars Science Laboratory Boot Robustness Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Banazadeh, Payam; Lam, Danny

2011-01-01

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is one of the most complex spacecrafts in the history of mankind. Due to the nature of its complexity, a large number of flight software (FSW) requirements have been written for implementation. In practice, these requirements necessitate very complex and very precise flight software with no room for error. One of flight software's responsibilities is to be able to boot up and check the state of all devices on the spacecraft after the wake up process. This boot up and initialization is crucial to the mission success since any misbehavior of different devices needs to be handled through the flight software. I have created a test toolkit that allows the FSW team to exhaustively test the flight software under variety of different unexpected scenarios and validate that flight software can handle any situation after booting up. The test includes initializing different devices on spacecraft to different configurations and validate at the end of the flight software boot up that the flight software has initialized those devices to what they are suppose to be in that particular scenario.

Vehicle active steering control research based on two-DOF robust internal model control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jian; Liu, Yahui; Wang, Fengbo; Bao, Chunjiang; Sun, Qun; Zhao, Youqun

2016-07-01

Because of vehicle's external disturbances and model uncertainties, robust control algorithms have obtained popularity in vehicle stability control. The robust control usually gives up performance in order to guarantee the robustness of the control algorithm, therefore an improved robust internal model control(IMC) algorithm blending model tracking and internal model control is put forward for active steering system in order to reach high performance of yaw rate tracking with certain robustness. The proposed algorithm inherits the good model tracking ability of the IMC control and guarantees robustness to model uncertainties. In order to separate the design process of model tracking from the robustness design process, the improved 2 degree of freedom(DOF) robust internal model controller structure is given from the standard Youla parameterization. Simulations of double lane change maneuver and those of crosswind disturbances are conducted for evaluating the robust control algorithm, on the basis of a nonlinear vehicle simulation model with a magic tyre model. Results show that the established 2-DOF robust IMC method has better model tracking ability and a guaranteed level of robustness and robust performance, which can enhance the vehicle stability and handling, regardless of variations of the vehicle model parameters and the external crosswind interferences. Contradiction between performance and robustness of active steering control algorithm is solved and higher control performance with certain robustness to model uncertainties is obtained.

Fault tolerant control laws

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ly, U. L.; Ho, J. K.

1986-01-01

A systematic procedure for the synthesis of fault tolerant control laws to actuator failure has been presented. Two design methods were used to synthesize fault tolerant controllers: the conventional LQ design method and a direct feedback controller design method SANDY. The latter method is used primarily to streamline the full-state Q feedback design into a practical implementable output feedback controller structure. To achieve robustness to control actuator failure, the redundant surfaces are properly balanced according to their control effectiveness. A simple gain schedule based on the landing gear up/down logic involving only three gains was developed to handle three design flight conditions: Mach .25 and Mach .60 at 5000 ft and Mach .90 at 20,000 ft. The fault tolerant control law developed in this study provides good stability augmentation and performance for the relaxed static stability aircraft. The augmented aircraft responses are found to be invariant to the presence of a failure. Furthermore, single-loop stability margins of +6 dB in gain and +30 deg in phase were achieved along with -40 dB/decade rolloff at high frequency.

Selected Flight Test Results for Online Learning Neural Network-Based Flight Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams-Hayes, Peggy S.

2004-01-01

The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System project team developed a series of flight control concepts designed to demonstrate neural network-based adaptive controller benefits, with the objective to develop and flight-test control systems using neural network technology to optimize aircraft performance under nominal conditions and stabilize the aircraft under failure conditions. This report presents flight-test results for an adaptive controller using stability and control derivative values from an online learning neural network. A dynamic cell structure neural network is used in conjunction with a real-time parameter identification algorithm to estimate aerodynamic stability and control derivative increments to baseline aerodynamic derivatives in flight. This open-loop flight test set was performed in preparation for a future phase in which the learning neural network and parameter identification algorithm output would provide the flight controller with aerodynamic stability and control derivative updates in near real time. Two flight maneuvers are analyzed - pitch frequency sweep and automated flight-test maneuver designed to optimally excite the parameter identification algorithm in all axes. Frequency responses generated from flight data are compared to those obtained from nonlinear simulation runs. Flight data examination shows that addition of flight-identified aerodynamic derivative increments into the simulation improved aircraft pitch handling qualities.

Deep Impact comet encounter: design, development, and operations of the big event at Tempel 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wissler, Steven; Rocca, Jennifer; Kubitschek, Daniel

2005-01-01

Deep Impact is NASA's eighth Discovery mission. This low-cost, focused planetary science investigation gathered the data necessary to help scientists unlock early secrets of our solar system. The comet encounter with Tempel 1 was a complex event - requiring extremely accurate timing, robustness to an unknown environment, and flight team adaptibility. The mission operations and flight systems performance were spectacular for approach, impact, and lookback imaging on July 4, 2005.

Aeroelastic Model Structure Computation for Envelope Expansion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kukreja, Sunil L.

2007-01-01

Structure detection is a procedure for selecting a subset of candidate terms, from a full model description, that best describes the observed output. This is a necessary procedure to compute an efficient system description which may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. Structure computation as a tool for black-box modelling may be of critical importance in the development of robust, parsimonious models for the flight-test community. Moreover, this approach may lead to efficient strategies for rapid envelope expansion which may save significant development time and costs. In this study, a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) technique is investigated for computing efficient model descriptions of nonlinear aeroelastic systems. The LASSO minimises the residual sum of squares by the addition of an l(sub 1) penalty term on the parameter vector of the traditional 2 minimisation problem. Its use for structure detection is a natural extension of this constrained minimisation approach to pseudolinear regression problems which produces some model parameters that are exactly zero and, therefore, yields a parsimonious system description. Applicability of this technique for model structure computation for the F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing using flight test data is shown for several flight conditions (Mach numbers) by identifying a parsimonious system description with a high percent fit for cross-validated data.

Design and Testing of Flight Control Laws on the RASCAL Research Helicopter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frost, Chad R.; Hindson, William S.; Moralez. Ernesto, III; Tucker, George E.; Dryfoos, James B.

2001-01-01

Two unique sets of flight control laws were designed, tested and flown on the Army/NASA Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) JUH-60A Black Hawk helicopter. The first set of control laws used a simple rate feedback scheme, intended to facilitate the first flight and subsequent flight qualification of the RASCAL research flight control system. The second set of control laws comprised a more sophisticated model-following architecture. Both sets of flight control laws were developed and tested extensively using desktop-to-flight modeling, analysis, and simulation tools. Flight test data matched the model predicted responses well, providing both evidence and confidence that future flight control development for RASCAL will be efficient and accurate.

STS-118 Ascent/Entry Flight Control Team in White Flight Control Room (WFCR) with Flight Director Steve Stitch

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-07-20

JSC2007-E-41011 (20 July 2007) --- STS-118 Ascent/Entry flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room of Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC). Flight director Steve Stich (center right) and astronaut Tony Antonelli, spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), hold the STS-118 mission logo.

Selected Flight Test Results for Online Learning Neural Network-Based Flight Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Peggy S.

2004-01-01

The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System project team has developed a series of flight control concepts designed to demonstrate the benefits of a neural network-based adaptive controller. The objective of the team is to develop and flight-test control systems that use neural network technology to optimize the performance of the aircraft under nominal conditions as well as stabilize the aircraft under failure conditions. Failure conditions include locked or failed control surfaces as well as unforeseen damage that might occur to the aircraft in flight. This report presents flight-test results for an adaptive controller using stability and control derivative values from an online learning neural network. A dynamic cell structure neural network is used in conjunction with a real-time parameter identification algorithm to estimate aerodynamic stability and control derivative increments to the baseline aerodynamic derivatives in flight. This set of open-loop flight tests was performed in preparation for a future phase of flights in which the learning neural network and parameter identification algorithm output would provide the flight controller with aerodynamic stability and control derivative updates in near real time. Two flight maneuvers are analyzed a pitch frequency sweep and an automated flight-test maneuver designed to optimally excite the parameter identification algorithm in all axes. Frequency responses generated from flight data are compared to those obtained from nonlinear simulation runs. An examination of flight data shows that addition of the flight-identified aerodynamic derivative increments into the simulation improved the pitch handling qualities of the aircraft.

Hypersonic vehicle model and control law development using H(infinity) and micron synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregory, Irene M.; Chowdhry, Rajiv S.; McMinn, John D.; Shaughnessy, John D.

1994-10-01

The control system design for a Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) air breathing vehicle will be central to a successful mission because a precise ascent trajectory will preserve narrow payload margins. The air breathing propulsion system requires the vehicle to fly roughly halfway around the Earth through atmospheric turbulence. The turbulence, the high sensitivity of the propulsion system to inlet flow conditions, the relatively large uncertainty of the parameters characterizing the vehicle, and continuous acceleration make the problem especially challenging. Adequate stability margins must be provided without sacrificing payload mass since payload margins are critical. Therefore, a multivariable control theory capable of explicitly including both uncertainty and performance is needed. The H(infinity) controller in general provides good robustness but can result in conservative solutions for practical problems involving structured uncertainty. Structured singular value mu framework for analysis and synthesis is potentially much less conservative and hence more appropriate for problems with tight margins. An SSTO control system requires: highly accurate tracking of velocity and altitude commands while limiting angle-of-attack oscillations, minimized control power usage, and a stabilized vehicle when atmospheric turbulence and system uncertainty are present. The controller designs using H(infinity) and mu-synthesis procedures were compared. An integrated flight/propulsion dynamic mathematical model of a conical accelerator vehicle was linearized as the vehicle accelerated through Mach 8. Vehicle acceleration through the selected flight condition gives rise to parametric variation that was modeled as a structured uncertainty. The mu-analysis approach was used in the frequency domain to conduct controller analysis and was confirmed by time history plots. Results demonstrate the inherent advantages of the mu framework for this class of problems.

Hypersonic vehicle model and control law development using H(infinity) and micron synthesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, Irene M.; Chowdhry, Rajiv S.; Mcminn, John D.; Shaughnessy, John D.

1994-01-01

The control system design for a Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) air breathing vehicle will be central to a successful mission because a precise ascent trajectory will preserve narrow payload margins. The air breathing propulsion system requires the vehicle to fly roughly halfway around the Earth through atmospheric turbulence. The turbulence, the high sensitivity of the propulsion system to inlet flow conditions, the relatively large uncertainty of the parameters characterizing the vehicle, and continuous acceleration make the problem especially challenging. Adequate stability margins must be provided without sacrificing payload mass since payload margins are critical. Therefore, a multivariable control theory capable of explicitly including both uncertainty and performance is needed. The H(infinity) controller in general provides good robustness but can result in conservative solutions for practical problems involving structured uncertainty. Structured singular value mu framework for analysis and synthesis is potentially much less conservative and hence more appropriate for problems with tight margins. An SSTO control system requires: highly accurate tracking of velocity and altitude commands while limiting angle-of-attack oscillations, minimized control power usage, and a stabilized vehicle when atmospheric turbulence and system uncertainty are present. The controller designs using H(infinity) and mu-synthesis procedures were compared. An integrated flight/propulsion dynamic mathematical model of a conical accelerator vehicle was linearized as the vehicle accelerated through Mach 8. Vehicle acceleration through the selected flight condition gives rise to parametric variation that was modeled as a structured uncertainty. The mu-analysis approach was used in the frequency domain to conduct controller analysis and was confirmed by time history plots. Results demonstrate the inherent advantages of the mu framework for this class of problems.

Flight testing and simulation of an F-15 airplane using throttles for flight control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel; Wolf, Thomas

1992-01-01

Flight tests and simulation studies using the throttles of an F-15 airplane for emergency flight control have been conducted at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility. The airplane and the simulation are capable of extended up-and-away flight, using only throttles for flight path control. Initial simulation results showed that runway landings using manual throttles-only control were difficult, but possible with practice. Manual approaches flown in the airplane were much more difficult, indicating a significant discrepancy between flight and simulation. Analysis of flight data and development of improved simulation models that resolve the discrepancy are discussed. An augmented throttle-only control system that controls bank angle and flight path with appropriate feedback parameters has also been developed, evaluated in simulations, and is planned for flight in the F-15.

System identification for modeling for control of flexible structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mettler, Edward; Milman, Mark

1986-01-01

The major components of a design and operational flight strategy for flexible structure control systems are presented. In this strategy an initial distributed parameter control design is developed and implemented from available ground test data and on-orbit identification using sophisticated modeling and synthesis techniques. The reliability of this high performance controller is directly linked to the accuracy of the parameters on which the design is based. Because uncertainties inevitably grow without system monitoring, maintaining the control system requires an active on-line system identification function to supply parameter updates and covariance information. Control laws can then be modified to improve performance when the error envelopes are decreased. In terms of system safety and stability the covariance information is of equal importance as the parameter values themselves. If the on-line system ID function detects an increase in parameter error covariances, then corresponding adjustments must be made in the control laws to increase robustness. If the error covariances exceed some threshold, an autonomous calibration sequence could be initiated to restore the error enveloped to an acceptable level.

Optimal Control Design using an H(sub 2) Method for the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (G-Limit)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Philip C.; Hampton, R. David

2002-01-01

The acceleration environment on the International Space Station (ISS) will likely exceed the requirements of many micro-gravity experiments. The Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) is being built by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to attenuate the nominal acceleration environment and provide some isolation for microgravity science experiments. G-LIMIT uses Lorentz (voice-coil) magnetic actuators to isolate a platform for mounting science payloads from the nominal acceleration environment. The system utilizes payload acceleration, relative position, and relative orientation measurements in a feedback controller to accomplish the vibration isolation task. The controller provides current commands to six magnetic actuators, producing the required experiment isolation from the ISS acceleration environment. This paper presents the development of a candidate control law to meet the acceleration attenuation requirements for the g-LIMIT experiment platform. The controller design is developed using linear optimal control techniques for frequency-weighted H(sub 2) norms. Comparison of the performance and robustness to plant uncertainty for this control design approach is included in the discussion.

Frequency Weighted H2 Control Design for the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Philip C.; Hampton, R. David

2004-01-01

The acceleration environment on the International Space Station (ISS) exceeds the requirements of many microgravity experiments. The Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) has been built by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to attenuate the nominal acceleration environment and provide some isolation for microgravity science experiments. The g-LIMIT uses Lorentz (voice-coil) magnetic actuators to isolate a platform, for mounting science payloads, from the nominal acceleration environment. The system utilizes payload-acceleration, relative-position, and relative-orientation measurements in a feedback controller to accomplish the vibration isolation task. The controller provides current commands to six magnetic actuators, producing the required experiment isolation from the ISS acceleration environment. The present work documents the development of a candidate control law to meet the acceleration attenuation requirements for the g-LIMIT experiment platform. The controller design is developed using linear optimal control techniques for frequency-weighted H2 norms. Comparison of performance and robustness to plant uncertainty for this control design approach is included in the discussion. System performance is demonstrated in the presence of plant modeling error.

Optimal Control Design Using an H2 Method for the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Phillip C.; Hampton, R. David; Whorton, Mark S.

2001-01-01

The acceleration environment on the International Space Station (ISS) will likely exceed the requirements of many micro-gravity experiments. The Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) is being built by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to attenuate the nominal acceleration environment and provide some isolation for micro-gravity science experiments. G-LIMIT uses Lorentz (voice-coil) magnetic actuators to isolate a platform for mounting science payloads from the nominal acceleration environment. The system utilizes payload acceleration, relative position, and relative orientation measurements in a feedback controller to accomplish the vibration isolation task. The controller provides current command to six magnetic actuators, producing the required experiment isolation from the ISS acceleration environment. This paper presents the development of a candidate control law to meet the acceleration attenuation requirements for the g-LIMIT experiment platform. The controller design is developed using linear optimal control techniques for both frequency-weighted H(sub 2) and H(sub infinity) norms. Comparison of the performance and robustness to plant uncertainty for these two optimal control design approaches are included in the discussion.

Flight demonstration of a self repairing flight control system in a NASA F-15 fighter aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Urnes, James M.; Stewart, James; Eslinger, Robert

1990-01-01

Battle damage causing loss of control capability can compromise mission objectives and even result in aircraft loss. The Self Repairing Flight Control System (SRFCS) flight development program directly addresses this issue with a flight control system design that measures the damage and immediately refines the control system commands to preserve mission potential. The system diagnostics process detects in flight the type of faults that are difficult to isolate post flight, and thus cause excessive ground maintenance time and cost. The control systems of fighter aircraft have the control power and surface displacement to maneuver the aircraft in a very large flight envelope with a wide variation in airspeed and g maneuvering conditions, with surplus force capacity available from each control surface. Digital flight control processors are designed to include built-in status of the control system components, as well as sensor information on aircraft control maneuver commands and response. In the event of failure or loss of a control surface, the SRFCS utilizes this capability to reconfigure control commands to the remaining control surfaces, thus preserving maneuvering response. Correct post-flight repair is the key to low maintainability support costs and high aircraft mission readiness. The SRFCS utilizes the large data base available with digital flight control systems to diagnose faults. Built-in-test data and sensor data are used as inputs to an Onboard Expert System process to accurately identify failed components for post-flight maintenance action. This diagnostic technique has the advantage of functioning during flight, and so is especially useful in identifying intermittent faults that are present only during maneuver g loads or high hydraulic flow requirements. A flight system was developed to test the reconfiguration and onboard maintenance diagnostics concepts on a NASA F-15 fighter aircraft.

Robust In-Flight Sensor Fault Diagnostics for Aircraft Engine Based on Sliding Mode Observers

PubMed Central

Chang, Xiaodong; Huang, Jinquan; Lu, Feng

2017-01-01

For a sensor fault diagnostic system of aircraft engines, the health performance degradation is an inevitable interference that cannot be neglected. To address this issue, this paper investigates an integrated on-line sensor fault diagnostic scheme for a commercial aircraft engine based on a sliding mode observer (SMO). In this approach, one sliding mode observer is designed for engine health performance tracking, and another for sensor fault reconstruction. Both observers are employed in in-flight applications. The results of the former SMO are analyzed for post-flight updating the baseline model of the latter. This idea is practical and feasible since the updating process does not require the algorithm to be regulated or redesigned, so that ground-based intervention is avoided, and the update process is implemented in an economical and efficient way. With this setup, the robustness of the proposed scheme to the health degradation is much enhanced and the latter SMO is able to fulfill sensor fault reconstruction over the course of the engine life. The proposed sensor fault diagnostic system is applied to a nonlinear simulation of a commercial aircraft engine, and its effectiveness is evaluated in several fault scenarios. PMID:28398255

Robust In-Flight Sensor Fault Diagnostics for Aircraft Engine Based on Sliding Mode Observers.

PubMed

Chang, Xiaodong; Huang, Jinquan; Lu, Feng

2017-04-11

For a sensor fault diagnostic system of aircraft engines, the health performance degradation is an inevitable interference that cannot be neglected. To address this issue, this paper investigates an integrated on-line sensor fault diagnostic scheme for a commercial aircraft engine based on a sliding mode observer (SMO). In this approach, one sliding mode observer is designed for engine health performance tracking, and another for sensor fault reconstruction. Both observers are employed in in-flight applications. The results of the former SMO are analyzed for post-flight updating the baseline model of the latter. This idea is practical and feasible since the updating process does not require the algorithm to be regulated or redesigned, so that ground-based intervention is avoided, and the update process is implemented in an economical and efficient way. With this setup, the robustness of the proposed scheme to the health degradation is much enhanced and the latter SMO is able to fulfill sensor fault reconstruction over the course of the engine life. The proposed sensor fault diagnostic system is applied to a nonlinear simulation of a commercial aircraft engine, and its effectiveness is evaluated in several fault scenarios.

Dynamics Control Approaches to Improve Vibratory Environment of the Helicopter Aircrew

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wickramasinghe, Viresh Kanchana

Although helicopter has become a versatile mode of aerial transportation, high vibration levels leads to poor ride quality for its passengers and aircrew. Undesired vibration transmitted through the helicopter seats have been known to cause fatigue and discomfort to the aircrew in the short-term as well as neck strain and back pain injuries due to long-term exposure. This research study investigated the use of novel active as well as passive methodologies integrated in helicopter seats to mitigate the aircrew exposure to high vibration levels. Due to significantly less certification effort required to modify the helicopter seat structure, application of novel technologies to the seat is more practical compared to flight critical components such as the main rotor to reduce aircrew vibration. In particular, this research effort developed a novel adaptive seat mount approach based on active vibration control technology. This novel design that incorporated two stacked piezoelectric actuators as active struts increases the bending stiffness to avoid the low frequency resonance while generating forces to counteract higher harmonic vibration peaks. A real-time controller implemented using a feed-forward algorithm based on adaptive notches counteracted the forced vibration peaks while a robust feedback control algorithm suppressed the resonance modes. The effectiveness of the adaptive seat mount system was demonstrated through extensive closed-loop control tests on a full-scale helicopter seat using representative helicopter floor vibration profiles. Test results concluded that the proposed adaptive seat mount approach based on active control technology is a viable solution for the helicopter seat vibration control application. In addition, a unique flight test using a Bell-412 helicopter demonstrated that the aircrew is exposed to high levels of vibration during flight and that the whole body vibration spectrum varied substantially depending on operating conditions as well as the aircrew configurations. This investigation also demonstrated the suitability of integrating novel energy absorbing cushion materials to the seat as a low cost solution to improve aircrew vibration suppression. Therefore, it was recommended to pursue certification of novel seat cushion materials as a near-term solution to mitigate undesirable occupational health hazards in helicopter aircrew due to vibration exposure.

An informal analysis of flight control tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andersen, George J.

1991-01-01

Issues important in rotorcraft flight control are discussed. A perceptual description is suggested of what is believed to be the major issues in flight control. When the task is considered of a pilot controlling a helicopter in flight, the task is decomposed in several subtasks. These subtasks include: (1) the control of altitude, (2) the control of speed, (3) the control of heading, (4) the control of orientation, (5) the control of flight over obstacles, and (6) the control of flight to specified positions in the world. The first four subtasks can be considered to be primary control tasks as they are not dependent on any other subtasks. However, the latter two subtasks can be considered hierarchical tasks as they are dependent on other subtasks. For example, the task of flight control over obstacles can be decomposed as a task requiring the control of speed, altitude, and heading. Thus, incorrect control of altitude should result in poor control of flight over an obstacle.

14 CFR 27.151 - Flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Flight controls. 27.151 Section 27.151... STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Flight Flight Characteristics § 27.151 Flight controls. (a) Longitudinal, lateral, directional, and collective controls may not exhibit excessive breakout force, friction...

14 CFR 29.151 - Flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Flight controls. 29.151 Section 29.151... STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Flight Flight Characteristics § 29.151 Flight controls. (a) Longitudinal, lateral, directional, and collective controls may not exhibit excessive breakout force, friction...

Electromagnetic Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schafer, Charles

2000-01-01

The design and development of an Electromagnetic Propulsion is discussed. Specific Electromagnetic Propulsion Topics discussed include: (1) Technology for Pulse Inductive Thruster (PIT), to design, develop, and test of a multirepetition rate pulsed inductive thruster, Solid-State Switch Technology, and Pulse Driver Network and Architecture; (2) Flight Weight Magnet Survey, to determine/develop light weight high performance magnetic materials for potential application Advanced Space Flight Systems as these systems develop; and (3) Magnetic Flux Compression, to enable rapid/robust/reliable omni-planetary space transportation within realistic development and operational costs constraints.

A neural based intelligent flight control system for the NASA F-15 flight research aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Urnes, James M.; Hoy, Stephen E.; Ladage, Robert N.; Stewart, James

1993-01-01

A flight control concept that can identify aircraft stability properties and continually optimize the aircraft flying qualities has been developed by McDonnell Aircraft Company under a contract with the NASA-Dryden Flight Research Facility. This flight concept, termed the Intelligent Flight Control System, utilizes Neural Network technology to identify the host aircraft stability and control properties during flight, and use this information to design on-line the control system feedback gains to provide continuous optimum flight response. This self-repairing capability can provide high performance flight maneuvering response throughout large flight envelopes, such as needed for the National Aerospace Plane. Moreover, achieving this response early in the vehicle's development schedule will save cost.

Flight Test Implementation of a Second Generation Intelligent Flight Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams-Hayes, Peggy S.

2005-01-01

The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System project team has developed a series of flight control concepts designed to demonstrate the benefits of a neural network-based adaptive controller. The objective of the team was to develop and flight-test control systems that use neural network technology, to optimize the performance of the aircraft under nominal conditions, and to stabilize the aircraft under failure conditions. Failure conditions include locked or failed control surfaces as well as unforeseen damage that might occur to the aircraft in flight. The Intelligent Flight Control System team is currently in the process of implementing a second generation control scheme, collectively known as Generation 2 or Gen 2, for flight testing on the NASA F-15 aircraft. This report describes the Gen 2 system as implemented by the team for flight test evaluation. Simulation results are shown which describe the experiment to be performed in flight and highlight the ways in which the Gen 2 system meets the defined objectives.

KRISTINA: Kinematic rib-based structural system for innovative adaptive trailing edge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pecora, R.; Amoroso, F.; Magnifico, M.; Dimino, I.; Concilio, A.

2016-04-01

Nature teaches that the flight of the birds succeeds perfectly since they are able to change the shape of their wings in a continuous manner. The careful observation of this phenomenon has re-introduced in the recent research topics the study of "metamorphic" wing structures; these innovative architectures allow for the controlled wing shape adaptation to different flight conditions with the ultimate goal of getting desirable improvements such as the increase of aerodynamic efficiency or load control effectiveness. In this framework, the European research project SARISTU aimed at combining morphing and smart ideas to the leading edge, the trailing edge and the winglet of a large commercial airplane (EASA CS25 category) while assessing integrated technologies validation through high-speed wind tunnel test on a true scale outer wing segment. The design process of the adaptive trailing edge (ATED) addressed by SARISTU is here outlined, from the conceptual definition of the camber-morphing architecture up to the assessment of the device executive layout. Rational design criteria were implemented in order to preliminarily define ATED structural layout and the general configuration of the embedded mechanisms enabling morphing under the action of aerodynamic loads. Advanced FE analyses were then carried out and the robustness of adopted structural arrangements was proven in compliance with applicable airworthiness requirements.

Propulsion system-flight control integration-flight evaluation and technology transition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Gilyard, Glenn B.; Myers, Lawrence P.

1990-01-01

Integration of propulsion and flight control systems and their optimization offering significant performance improvement are assessed. In particular, research programs conducted by NASA on flight control systems and propulsion system-flight control interactions on the YF-12 and F-15 aircraft are addressed; these programs have demonstrated increased thrust, reduced fuel consumption, increased engine life, and improved aircraft performance. Focus is placed on altitude control, speed-Mach control, integrated controller design, as well as flight control systems and digital electronic engine control. A highly integrated digital electronic control program is analyzed and compared with a performance seeking control program. It is shown that the flight evaluation and demonstration of these technologies have been a key part in the transition of the concepts to production and operational use on a timely basis.

Neural network application to aircraft control system design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Troudet, Terry; Garg, Sanjay; Merrill, Walter C.

1991-01-01

The feasibility of using artificial neural networks as control systems for modern, complex aerospace vehicles is investigated via an example aircraft control design study. The problem considered is that of designing a controller for an integrated airframe/propulsion longitudinal dynamics model of a modern fighter aircraft to provide independent control of pitch rate and airspeed responses to pilot command inputs. An explicit model following controller using H infinity control design techniques is first designed to gain insight into the control problem as well as to provide a baseline for evaluation of the neurocontroller. Using the model of the desired dynamics as a command generator, a multilayer feedforward neural network is trained to control the vehicle model within the physical limitations of the actuator dynamics. This is achieved by minimizing an objective function which is a weighted sum of tracking errors and control input commands and rates. To gain insight in the neurocontrol, linearized representations of the nonlinear neurocontroller are analyzed along a commanded trajectory. Linear robustness analysis tools are then applied to the linearized neurocontroller models and to the baseline H infinity based controller. Future areas of research are identified to enhance the practical applicability of neural networks to flight control design.

Neural network application to aircraft control system design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Troudet, Terry; Garg, Sanjay; Merrill, Walter C.

1991-01-01

The feasibility of using artificial neural network as control systems for modern, complex aerospace vehicles is investigated via an example aircraft control design study. The problem considered is that of designing a controller for an integrated airframe/propulsion longitudinal dynamics model of a modern fighter aircraft to provide independent control of pitch rate and airspeed responses to pilot command inputs. An explicit model following controller using H infinity control design techniques is first designed to gain insight into the control problem as well as to provide a baseline for evaluation of the neurocontroller. Using the model of the desired dynamics as a command generator, a multilayer feedforward neural network is trained to control the vehicle model within the physical limitations of the actuator dynamics. This is achieved by minimizing an objective function which is a weighted sum of tracking errors and control input commands and rates. To gain insight in the neurocontrol, linearized representations of the nonlinear neurocontroller are analyzed along a commanded trajectory. Linear robustness analysis tools are then applied to the linearized neurocontroller models and to the baseline H infinity based controller. Future areas of research identified to enhance the practical applicability of neural networks to flight control design.

Enhanced Flight Termination System (EFTS): Flight Demonstration and Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tow, David; Arce, Dennis

2008-01-01

The Enhanced Flight Termination System (EFTS) program was initiated and propelled due to the inadvertent terminations of Global Hawk and the Strategic Target System and the NASA Inspector General's assessment letter and recommendations regarding the exploration of low-cost, lightweight space COMSEC for FTS. Additionally, the standard analog and high alphabet systems most commonly used in FTS are secure, but not encrypted. A study group was initiated to select and document a robust, affordable, reliable technology that provides encrypted FTS capability. A flight demonstration was conducted to gain experience using EFTS in an operational environment, provide confidence in the use of the EFTS components, integrate EFTS into an existing range infrastructure to demonstrate the scalability of system components, to provide a command controller that generated the EFTS waveform using an existing range infrastructure, and to provide a report documenting the results of the demonstration. The primary goal of the demonstration was to obtain operational experience with EFTS. Areas of operational experience include: mission planning, pre-flight configuration and testing, mission monitoring and recording, vehicle termination, developing mission procedures. and post mission data reduction and other post mission activities. An Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) was selected to support the EFTS demonstration due to interest in future use of EFTS by the AMRAAM program, familiarity of EFTS by range personnel, and the availability of existing operational environment to support EFTS testing with available program funding. For demonstration purposes, the AMRAAM was successfully terminated using an EFTS receiver and successfully demonstrating EFTS. The EFTS monitoring software with spectrum analyzer and digital graphical display of aircraft, missile, and target were also demonstrated.

Greedy Sampling and Incremental Surrogate Model-Based Tailoring of Aeroservoelastic Model Database for Flexible Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Yi; Pant, Kapil; Brenner, Martin J.; Ouellette, Jeffrey A.

2018-01-01

This paper presents a data analysis and modeling framework to tailor and develop linear parameter-varying (LPV) aeroservoelastic (ASE) model database for flexible aircrafts in broad 2D flight parameter space. The Kriging surrogate model is constructed using ASE models at a fraction of grid points within the original model database, and then the ASE model at any flight condition can be obtained simply through surrogate model interpolation. The greedy sampling algorithm is developed to select the next sample point that carries the worst relative error between the surrogate model prediction and the benchmark model in the frequency domain among all input-output channels. The process is iterated to incrementally improve surrogate model accuracy till a pre-determined tolerance or iteration budget is met. The methodology is applied to the ASE model database of a flexible aircraft currently being tested at NASA/AFRC for flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. Our studies indicate that the proposed method can reduce the number of models in the original database by 67%. Even so the ASE models obtained through Kriging interpolation match the model in the original database constructed directly from the physics-based tool with the worst relative error far below 1%. The interpolated ASE model exhibits continuously-varying gains along a set of prescribed flight conditions. More importantly, the selected grid points are distributed non-uniformly in the parameter space, a) capturing the distinctly different dynamic behavior and its dependence on flight parameters, and b) reiterating the need and utility for adaptive space sampling techniques for ASE model database compaction. The present framework is directly extendible to high-dimensional flight parameter space, and can be used to guide the ASE model development, model order reduction, robust control synthesis and novel vehicle design of flexible aircraft.

Flight Test of the F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing Airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clarke, Robert; Allen, Michael J.; Dibley, Ryan P.; Gera, Joseph; Hodgkinson, John

2005-01-01

Successful flight-testing of the Active Aeroelastic Wing airplane was completed in March 2005. This program, which started in 1996, was a joint activity sponsored by NASA, Air Force Research Laboratory, and industry contractors. The test program contained two flight test phases conducted in early 2003 and early 2005. During the first phase of flight test, aerodynamic models and load models of the wing control surfaces and wing structure were developed. Design teams built new research control laws for the Active Aeroelastic Wing airplane using these flight-validated models; and throughout the final phase of flight test, these new control laws were demonstrated. The control laws were designed to optimize strategies for moving the wing control surfaces to maximize roll rates in the transonic and supersonic flight regimes. Control surface hinge moments and wing loads were constrained to remain within hydraulic and load limits. This paper describes briefly the flight control system architecture as well as the design approach used by Active Aeroelastic Wing project engineers to develop flight control system gains. Additionally, this paper presents flight test techniques and comparison between flight test results and predictions.

Flight Validation of a Metrics Driven L(sub 1) Adaptive Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dobrokhodov, Vladimir; Kitsios, Ioannis; Kaminer, Isaac; Jones, Kevin D.; Xargay, Enric; Hovakimyan, Naira; Cao, Chengyu; Lizarraga, Mariano I.; Gregory, Irene M.

2008-01-01

The paper addresses initial steps involved in the development and flight implementation of new metrics driven L1 adaptive flight control system. The work concentrates on (i) definition of appropriate control driven metrics that account for the control surface failures; (ii) tailoring recently developed L1 adaptive controller to the design of adaptive flight control systems that explicitly address these metrics in the presence of control surface failures and dynamic changes under adverse flight conditions; (iii) development of a flight control system for implementation of the resulting algorithms onboard of small UAV; and (iv) conducting a comprehensive flight test program that demonstrates performance of the developed adaptive control algorithms in the presence of failures. As the initial milestone the paper concentrates on the adaptive flight system setup and initial efforts addressing the ability of a commercial off-the-shelf AP with and without adaptive augmentation to recover from control surface failures.

Nonclassical Flight Control for Unhealthy Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lu, Ping

1997-01-01

This research set out to investigate flight control of aircraft which has sustained damage in regular flight control effectors, due to jammed control surfaces or complete loss of hydraulic power. It is recognized that in such an extremely difficult situation unconventional measures may need to be taken to regain control and stability of the aircraft. Propulsion controlled aircraft (PCA) concept, initiated at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. represents a ground-breaking effort in this direction. In this approach, the engine is used as the only flight control effector in the rare event of complete loss of normal flight control system. Studies and flight testing conducted at NASA Dryden have confirmed the feasibility of the PCA concept. During the course of this research (March 98, 1997 to November 30, 1997), a comparative study has been done using the full nonlinear model of an F-18 aircraft. Linear controllers and nonlinear controllers based on a nonlinear predictive control method have been designed for normal flight control system and propulsion controlled aircraft. For the healthy aircraft with normal flight control, the study shows that an appropriately designed linear controller can perform as well as a nonlinear controller. On the other hand. when the normal flight control is lost and the engine is the only available means of flight control, a nonlinear PCA controller can significantly increase the size of the recoverable region in which the stability of the unstable aircraft can be attained by using only thrust modulation. The findings and controller design methods have been summarized in an invited paper entitled.

TOLNet Data and Information

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2016-06-22

... a network of ground sites which are located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (38.992°N, 76.839°W), Jet Propulsion Laboratory ... and to support airborne field studies and satellite missions. TOLNet also develops recommendations for more robust, cost effective ...

Remote Agent Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benard, Doug; Dorais, Gregory A.; Gamble, Ed; Kanefsky, Bob; Kurien, James; Millar, William; Muscettola, Nicola; Nayak, Pandu; Rouquette, Nicolas; Rajan, Kanna;

Hypersonic vehicle control law development using H infinity and mu-synthesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, Irene M.; Chowdhry, Rajiv S.; Mcminn, John D.; Shaughnessy, John D.

1992-01-01

Applicability and effectiveness of robust control techniques to a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) airbreathing hypersonic vehicle on an ascent accelerating path and their effectiveness are explored in this paper. An SSTO control system design problem, requiring high accuracy tracking of velocity and altitude commands while limiting angle of attack oscillations, minimizing control power usage and stabilizing the vehicle all in the presence of atmospheric turbulence and uncertainty in the system, was formulated to compare results of the control designs using H infinity and mu-synthesis procedures. The math model, an integrated flight/propulsion dynamic model of a conical accelerator class vehicle, was linearized as the vehicle accelerated through Mach 8. Controller analysis was conducted using the singular value technique and the mu-analysis approach. Analysis results were obtained in both the frequency and the time domains. The results clearly demonstrate the inherent advantages of the structured singular value framework for this class of problems. Since payload performance margins are so critical for the SSTO mission, it is crucial that adequate stability margins be provided without sacrificing any payload mass.

Integrated multiple-model adaptive fault identification and reconfigurable fault-tolerant control for Lead-Wing close formation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Chun; Jiang, Bin; Zhang, Ke

2018-03-01

This paper investigates the attitude and position tracking control problem for Lead-Wing close formation systems in the presence of loss of effectiveness and lock-in-place or hardover failure. In close formation flight, Wing unmanned aerial vehicle movements are influenced by vortex effects of the neighbouring Lead unmanned aerial vehicle. This situation allows modelling of aerodynamic coupling vortex-effects and linearisation based on optimal close formation geometry. Linearised Lead-Wing close formation model is transformed into nominal robust H-infinity models with respect to Mach hold, Heading hold, and Altitude hold autopilots; static feedback H-infinity controller is designed to guarantee effective tracking of attitude and position while manoeuvring Lead unmanned aerial vehicle. Based on H-infinity control design, an integrated multiple-model adaptive fault identification and reconfigurable fault-tolerant control scheme is developed to guarantee asymptotic stability of close-loop systems, error signal boundedness, and attitude and position tracking properties. Simulation results for Lead-Wing close formation systems validate the efficiency of the proposed integrated multiple-model adaptive control algorithm.

Free-flight investigation of forebody blowing for stability and control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brandon, Jay M.; Simon, James M.; Owens, D. Bruce; Kiddy, Jason S.

1996-01-01

A free-flight wind-tunnel investigation was conducted on a generic fighter model with forebody pneumatic vortex control for high angle-of-attack directional control. This is believed to be the first flight demonstration of a forebody blowing concept integrated into a closed-loop flight control system for stability augmentation and control. The investigation showed that the static wind tunnel estimates of the yaw control available generally agreed with flight results. The control scheme for the blowing nozzles consisted of an on/off control with a deadband. Controlled flight was obtained for the model using forebody blowing for directional control to beyond 45 deg. angle of attack.

Combining control input with flight path data to evaluate pilot performance in transport aircraft.

PubMed

Ebbatson, Matt; Harris, Don; Huddlestone, John; Sears, Rodney

2008-11-01

When deriving an objective assessment of piloting performance from flight data records, it is common to employ metrics which purely evaluate errors in flight path parameters. The adequacy of pilot performance is evaluated from the flight path of the aircraft. However, in large jet transport aircraft these measures may be insensitive and require supplementing with frequency-based measures of control input parameters. Flight path and control input data were collected from pilots undertaking a jet transport aircraft conversion course during a series of symmetric and asymmetric approaches in a flight simulator. The flight path data were analyzed for deviations around the optimum flight path while flying an instrument landing approach. Manipulation of the flight controls was subject to analysis using a series of power spectral density measures. The flight path metrics showed no significant differences in performance between the symmetric and asymmetric approaches. However, control input frequency domain measures revealed that the pilots employed highly different control strategies in the pitch and yaw axes. The results demonstrate that to evaluate pilot performance fully in large aircraft, it is necessary to employ performance metrics targeted at both the outer control loop (flight path) and the inner control loop (flight control) parameters in parallel, evaluating both the product and process of a pilot's performance.

STS-97 flight control team in WFCR - JSC - MCC

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-11-24

JSC2000-07303 (24 November 2000) --- The 30-odd flight controllers supporting the STS-97 entry shift pose for a pre-flight group portrait in the shuttle flight control room in Houston's Mission Control Center (JSC). Entry flight director LeRoy Cain (front center) holds a mission logo.

An Electronic Workshop on the Performance Seeking Control and Propulsion Controlled Aircraft Results of the F-15 Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control Flight Research Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powers, Sheryll Goecke (Compiler)

1995-01-01

Flight research for the F-15 HIDEC (Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control) program was completed at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in the fall of 1993. The flight research conducted during the last two years of the HIDEC program included two principal experiments: (1) performance seeking control (PSC), an adaptive, real-time, on-board optimization of engine, inlet, and horizontal tail position on the F-15; and (2) propulsion controlled aircraft (PCA), an augmented flight control system developed for landings as well as up-and-away flight that used only engine thrust (flight controls locked) for flight control. In September 1994, the background details and results of the PSC and PCA experiments were presented in an electronic workshop, accessible through the Dryden World Wide Web (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/dryden.html) and as a compact disk.

The Evolution of Utilizing Manual Throttles to Avoid Excessively Low LH2 NPSP at the SSME Inlet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henfling, Rick

2011-01-01

In the late 1970s, years before the Space Shuttle flew its maiden voyage, it was understood low liquid hydrogen (LH2) Net Positive Suction Pressure (NPSP) at the inlet to the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) could have adverse effects on engine operation. A number of failures within both the External Tank (ET) and the Orbiter Main Propulsion System (MPS) could result in a low LH2 NPSP condition, which at extremely low levels can result in cavitation of SSME turbomachinery. Operational workarounds were developed to take advantage of the onboard crew s ability to manually throttle down the SSMEs (via the Pilot s Speedbrake/Throttle Controller), which alleviated the low LH2 NPSP condition. Manually throttling the SSME to a lower power level resulted in an increase in NPSP, mainly due to the reduction in frictional flow losses while at the lower throttle setting. Early in the Space Shuttle Program s history, the relevant Flight Rule for the Booster flight controllers in Mission Control did not distinguish between ET and Orbiter MPS failures and the same crew action was taken for both. However, after a review of all Booster operational techniques following the Challenger disaster in the late 1980s, it was determined manually throttling the SSME to a lower power was only effective for Orbiter MPS failures and the Flight Rule was updated to reflect this change. The Flight Rule and associated crew actions initially called for a single throttle step to minimum power level when a low threshold for NPSP was met. As engineers refined their understanding of the NPSP requirements for the SSME (through a robust testing program), the operational techniques evolved to take advantage of the additional capabilities. This paper will examine the evolution of the Flight rule and associated procedure and how increases in knowledge about the SSME and the Space Shuttle vehicle as a whole have helped shape their development. What once was a single throttle step when NPSP decreased to a certain threshold has now become three throttle steps, each occurring at a lower NPSP threshold. Additionally the procedure, which for early Space Shuttle missions required a Return-to-Launch-Site abort, now results in a nominal Main Engine Cut Off and no loss of mission objectives.

The Evolution of Utilizing Manual Throttling to Avoid Excessively Low LH2 NPSP at the SSME Inlet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henfling, Rick

2010-01-01

In the late 1970s, years before the Space Shuttle flew its maiden voyage, it was understood low liquid hydrogen (LH2) Net Positive Suction Pressure (NPSP) at the inlet to the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) could have adverse effects on engine operation. A number of failures within both the External Tank (ET) and the Orbiter Main Propulsion System (MPS) could result in a low LH2 NPSP condition, which at extremely low levels can result in cavitation of SSME turbomachinery. Operational workarounds were developed to take advantage of the onboard crew s ability to manually throttle down the SSMEs (via the Pilot s Speedbrake/Throttle Controller), which alleviated the low LH2 NPSP condition. Manually throttling the SSME to a lower power level resulted in an increase in NPSP, mainly due to the reduction in frictional flow losses while at the lower throttle setting. Early in the Space Shuttle Program s history, the relevant Flight Rule for the Booster flight controller in Mission Control did not distinguish between ET and Orbiter MPS failures and the same crew action was taken for both. However, after a review of all Booster operational techniques following the Challenger disaster in the late 1980s, it was determined manually throttling the SSME to a lower power was only effective for Orbiter MPS failures and the Flight Rule was updated to reflect this change. The Flight Rule and associated crew actions initially called for a single throttle step to minimum power level when a low threshold for NPSP was met. As engineers refined their understanding of the NPSP requirements for the SSME (through a robust testing program), the operational techniques evolved to take advantage of the additional capabilities. This paper will examine the evolution of the Flight rule and associated procedure and how increases in knowledge about the SSME and the Space Shuttle vehicle as a whole have helped shape their development. What once was a single throttle step when NPSP decreased to a certain low threshold has now become three throttle steps, each occurring at a lower NPSP threshold. Additionally the procedure, which for early Space Shuttle missions required a Return-to-Launch-Site abort, now results in a nominal Main Engine Cut Off and no loss of mission objectives.

Advanced transport operating system software upgrade: Flight management/flight controls software description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clinedinst, Winston C.; Debure, Kelly R.; Dickson, Richard W.; Heaphy, William J.; Parks, Mark A.; Slominski, Christopher J.; Wolverton, David A.

1988-01-01

The Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) software for the Norden 2 (PDP-11/70M) computer installed on the NASA 737 aircraft is described. The software computes the navigation position estimates, guidance commands, those commands to be issued to the control surfaces to direct the aircraft in flight based on the modes selected on the Advanced Guidance Control System (AGSC) mode panel, and the flight path selected via the Navigation Control/Display Unit (NCDU).

Development and Flight Evaluation of an Emergency Digital Flight Control System Using Only Engine Thrust on an F-15 Airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. Gordon; Webb, Lannie Dean

1996-01-01

A propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system for emergency flight control of aircraft with no flight controls was developed and flight tested on an F-15 aircraft at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The airplane has been flown in a throttles-only manual mode and with an augmented system called PCA in which pilot thumbwheel commands and aircraft feedback parameters were used to drive the throttles. Results from a 36-flight evaluation showed that the PCA system can be used to safety land an airplane that has suffered a major flight control system failure. The PCA system was used to recover from a severe upset condition, descend, and land. Guest pilots have also evaluated the PCA system. This paper describes the principles of throttles-only flight control; a history of loss-of-control accidents; a description of the F-15 aircraft; the PCA system operation, simulation, and flight testing; and the pilot comments.

The importance of being top-heavy: Intrinsic stability of flapping flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ristroph, Leif; Liu, Bin; Zhang, Jun

2011-11-01

We explore the stability of flapping flight in a model system that consists of a pyramid-shaped object that freely hovers in a vertically oscillating airflow. Such a ``bug'' not only generates sufficient aerodynamic force to keep aloft but also robustly maintains balance during free-flight. Flow visualization reveals that both weight support and intrinsic stability result from the periodic shedding of dipolar vortices. Counter-intuitively, the observed pattern of vortex shedding suggests that stability requires a high center-of-mass, which we verify by comparing the performance of top- and bottom-heavy bugs. Finally, we visit a zoo of other flapping flyers, including Mary Poppins' umbrella, a flying saucer or UFO, and Da Vinci's helicopter.

Flight-determined benefits of integrated flight-propulsion control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stewart, James F.; Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Gatlin, Donald H.

1992-01-01

Over the last two decades, NASA has conducted several experiments in integrated flight-propulsion control. Benefits have included improved maneuverability; increased thrust, range, and survivability; reduced fuel consumption; and reduced maintenance. This paper presents the basic concepts for control integration, examples of implementation, and benefits. The F-111E experiment integrated the engine and inlet control systems. The YF-12C incorporated an integral control system involving the inlet, autopilot, autothrottle, airdata, navigation, and stability augmentation systems. The F-15 research involved integration of the engine, flight, and inlet control systems. Further extension of the integration included real-time, onboard optimization of engine, inlet, and flight control variables; a self-repairing flight control system; and an engines-only control concept for emergency control. The F-18A aircraft incorporated thrust vectoring integrated with the flight control system to provide enhanced maneuvering at high angles of attack. The flight research programs and the resulting benefits of each program are described.

Linearized aerodynamic and control law models of the X-29A airplane and comparison with flight data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosworth, John T.

1992-01-01

Flight control system design and analysis for aircraft rely on mathematical models of the vehicle dynamics. In addition to a six degree of freedom nonlinear simulation, the X-29A flight controls group developed a set of programs that calculate linear perturbation models throughout the X-29A flight envelope. The models include the aerodynamics as well as flight control system dynamics and were used for stability, controllability, and handling qualities analysis. These linear models were compared to flight test results to help provide a safe flight envelope expansion. A description is given of the linear models at three flight conditions and two flight control system modes. The models are presented with a level of detail that would allow the reader to reproduce the linear results if desired. Comparison between the response of the linear model and flight measured responses are presented to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the linear models' ability to predict flight dynamics.

A snapshot of plasma metabolites in first-episode schizophrenia: a capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry study.

PubMed

Koike, S; Bundo, M; Iwamoto, K; Suga, M; Kuwabara, H; Ohashi, Y; Shinoda, K; Takano, Y; Iwashiro, N; Satomura, Y; Nagai, T; Natsubori, T; Tada, M; Yamasue, H; Kasai, K

2014-04-08

Few biomarkers have been known that can easily measure clinical conditions in mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOFMS) is a new method that can measure ionized and low-molecular-weight metabolites. To explore global metabolomic alterations that characterize the onset of schizophrenia and identify biomarkers, we profiled the relative and absolute concentrations of the plasma metabolites from 30 patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ, four drug-naïve samples), 38 healthy controls and 15 individuals with autism spectrum disorders using CE-TOFMS. Five metabolites had robust changes (increased creatine and decreased betaine, nonanoic acid, benzoic acid and perillic acid) in two independent sample sets. Altered levels of these metabolites are consistent with well-known hypotheses regarding abnormalities of the homocysteine metabolism, creatine kinase-emia and oxidative stress. Although it should be considered that most patients with FESZ received medication, these metabolites are candidate biomarkers to improve the determination of diagnosis, severity and clinical stages, especially for FESZ.

Space Shuttle Main Engine: Advanced Health Monitoring System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singer, Chirs

1999-01-01

The main gola of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Advanced Health Management system is to improve flight safety. To this end the new SSME has robust new components to improve the operating margen and operability. The features of the current SSME health monitoring system, include automated checkouts, closed loop redundant control system, catastropic failure mitigation, fail operational/ fail-safe algorithms, and post flight data and inspection trend analysis. The features of the advanced health monitoring system include: a real time vibration monitor system, a linear engine model, and an optical plume anomaly detection system. Since vibration is a fundamental measure of SSME turbopump health, it stands to reason that monitoring the vibration, will give some idea of the health of the turbopumps. However, how is it possible to avoid shutdown, when it is not necessary. A sensor algorithm has been developed which has been exposed to over 400 test cases in order to evaluate the logic. The optical plume anomaly detection (OPAD) has been developed to be a sensitive monitor of engine wear, erosion, and breakage.

Experience with synchronous and asynchronous digital control systems. [for flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regenie, Victoria A.; Chacon, Claude V.; Lock, Wilton P.

1986-01-01

Flight control systems have undergone a revolution since the days of simple mechanical linkages; presently the most advanced systems are full-authority, full-time digital systems controlling unstable aircraft. With the use of advanced control systems, the aerodynamic design can incorporate features that allow greater performance and fuel savings, as can be seen on the new Airbus design and advanced tactical fighter concepts. These advanced aircraft will be and are relying on the flight control system to provide the stability and handling qualities required for safe flight and to allow the pilot to control the aircraft. Various design philosophies have been proposed and followed to investigate system architectures for these advanced flight control systems. One major area of discussion is whether a multichannel digital control system should be synchronous or asynchronous. This paper addressed the flight experience at the Dryden Flight Research Facility of NASA's Ames Research Center with both synchronous and asynchronous digital flight control systems. Four different flight control systems are evaluated against criteria such as software reliability, cost increases, and schedule delays.

14 CFR 27.673 - Primary flight control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Primary flight control. 27.673 Section 27... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Design and Construction Control Systems § 27.673 Primary flight control. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

14 CFR 29.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 29.673 Section 29... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Design and Construction Control Systems § 29.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

14 CFR 29.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 29.673 Section 29... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Design and Construction Control Systems § 29.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

14 CFR 27.673 - Primary flight control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Primary flight control. 27.673 Section 27... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Design and Construction Control Systems § 27.673 Primary flight control. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

76 FR 9265 - Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Electronic Flight Control System: Control...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-17

... for transport category airplanes. These design features include an electronic flight control system... Design Features The GVI has an electronic flight control system and no direct coupling from the cockpit...: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Electronic Flight Control System: Control Surface Position Awareness AGENCY...

14 CFR 27.673 - Primary flight control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Design and Construction Control Systems § 27.673 Primary flight control. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Primary flight control. 27.673 Section 27...

14 CFR 29.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Design and Construction Control Systems § 29.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 29.673 Section 29...

STS-119 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Orbit 3 - Flight Director Bryan Lunney

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-03-24

JSC2009-E-061542 (24 March 2009) --- The members of the STS-119 Orbit 3 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA?s Johnson Space Center. Flight director Bryan Lunney (center) near the front.

STS-125 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Orbit 1 - Flight Director Tony Ceccacci

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-20

JSC2009-E-120813 (20 May 2009) --- The members of the STS-125 Orbit 1 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Tony Ceccacci holds the STS-125 mission logo.

STS-131 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Orbit 2 - Flight Director Mike Sarafin

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-04-14

JSC2010-E-051978 (14 April 2010) --- The members of the STS-131 Orbit 2 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Mike Sarafin holds the STS-131 mission logo.

STS-131 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Planning - Flight Director: Ginger Kerrick

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-04-12

JSC2010-E-050902 (12 April 2010) --- The members of the STS-131 Planning flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Ginger Kerrick (center) is visible on the second row.

Development and Flight Test of an Augmented Thrust-Only Flight Control System on an MD-11 Transport Airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Burken, John J.; Pappas, Drew

1996-01-01

An emergency flight control system using only engine thrust, called Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft (PCA), has been developed and flight tested on an MD-11 airplane. In this thrust-only control system, pilot flight path and track commands and aircraft feedback parameters are used to control the throttles. The PCA system was installed on the MD-11 airplane using software modifications to existing computers. Flight test results show that the PCA system can be used to fly to an airport and safely land a transport airplane with an inoperative flight control system. In up-and-away operation, the PCA system served as an acceptable autopilot capable of extended flight over a range of speeds and altitudes. The PCA approaches, go-arounds, and three landings without the use of any non-nal flight controls have been demonstrated, including instrument landing system-coupled hands-off landings. The PCA operation was used to recover from an upset condition. In addition, PCA was tested at altitude with all three hydraulic systems turned off. This paper reviews the principles of throttles-only flight control; describes the MD-11 airplane and systems; and discusses PCA system development, operation, flight testing, and pilot comments.

Designing robust control laws using genetic algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marrison, Chris

1994-01-01

The purpose of this research is to create a method of finding practical, robust control laws. The robustness of a controller is judged by Stochastic Robustness metrics and the level of robustness is optimized by searching for design parameters that minimize a robustness cost function.

Design Considerations for Human Rating of Liquid Rocket Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parkinson, Douglas

2010-01-01

I.Human-rating is specific to each engine; a. Context of program/project must be understood. b. Engine cannot be discussed independently from vehicle and mission. II. Utilize a logical combination of design, manufacturing, and test approaches a. Design 1) It is crucial to know the potential ways a system can fail, and how a failure can propagate; 2) Fault avoidance, fault tolerance, DFMR, caution and warning all have roles to play. b. Manufacturing and Assembly; 1) As-built vs. as-designed; 2) Review procedures for assembly and maintenance periodically; and 3) Keep personnel trained and certified. c. There is no substitute for test: 1) Analytical tools are constantly advancing, but still need test data for anchoring assumptions; 2) Demonstrate robustness and explore sensitivities; 3) Ideally, flight will be encompassed by ground test experience. III. Consistency and repeatability is key in production a. Maintain robust processes and procedures for inspection and quality control based upon development and qualification experience; b. Establish methods to "spot check" quality and consistency in parts: 1) Dedicated ground test engines; 2) Random components pulled from the line/lot to go through "enhanced" testing.

STS-125 Flight Controllers on Console - (Orbit Shift 2). Flight Director: Richard LaBrode

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-12

JSC2009-E-119382 (12 May 2009) --- Flight director Rick LaBrode monitors data at his console in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center during STS-125 flight day two activities. Flight director Chris Edelen is at right.

Flight Approach to Adaptive Control Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pavlock, Kate Maureen; Less, James L.; Larson, David Nils

2011-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center completed flight testing of adaptive controls research on a full-scale F-18 testbed. The testbed served as a full-scale vehicle to test and validate adaptive flight control research addressing technical challenges involved with reducing risk to enable safe flight in the presence of adverse conditions such as structural damage or control surface failures. This paper describes the research interface architecture, risk mitigations, flight test approach and lessons learned of adaptive controls research.

ISS-12A.1 Orbit 1 Flight Control Team in FCR-1 with Flight Director Derek Hassmann

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-12-15

JSC2006-E-54411 (15 Dec. 2006) --- The members of the STS-116/12A.1 ISS Orbit 1 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the station flight control room of Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC). Flight director Derek Hassman (center right) holds the STS-116 mission logo. Astronaut Terry W. Virts Jr., spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), is at center. PHALCON flight controller Scott Stover (center left) holds the P5 truss power reconfiguration logo.

Preliminary Flight Results of a Fly-by-throttle Emergency Flight Control System on an F-15 Airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. Gordon; Wells, Edward A.

1993-01-01

A multi-engine aircraft, with some or all of the flight control system inoperative, may use engine thrust for control. NASA Dryden has conducted a study of the capability and techniques for this emergency flight control method for the F-15 airplane. With an augmented control system, engine thrust, along with appropriate feedback parameters, is used to control flightpath and bank angle. Extensive simulation studies were followed by flight tests. The principles of throttles only control, the F-15 airplane, the augmented system, and the flight results including actual landings with throttles-only control are discussed.

Flight Test of an Intelligent Flight-Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, Ron; Bosworth, John T.; Jacobson, Steven R.; Thomson, Michael Pl; Jorgensen, Charles C.

2003-01-01

The F-15 Advanced Controls Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE) airplane (see figure) was the test bed for a flight test of an intelligent flight control system (IFCS). This IFCS utilizes a neural network to determine critical stability and control derivatives for a control law, the real-time gains of which are computed by an algorithm that solves the Riccati equation. These derivatives are also used to identify the parameters of a dynamic model of the airplane. The model is used in a model-following portion of the control law, in order to provide specific vehicle handling characteristics. The flight test of the IFCS marks the initiation of the Intelligent Flight Control System Advanced Concept Program (IFCS ACP), which is a collaboration between NASA and Boeing Phantom Works. The goals of the IFCS ACP are to (1) develop the concept of a flight-control system that uses neural-network technology to identify aircraft characteristics to provide optimal aircraft performance, (2) develop a self-training neural network to update estimates of aircraft properties in flight, and (3) demonstrate the aforementioned concepts on the F-15 ACTIVE airplane in flight. The activities of the initial IFCS ACP were divided into three Phases, each devoted to the attainment of a different objective. The objective of Phase I was to develop a pre-trained neural network to store and recall the wind-tunnel-based stability and control derivatives of the vehicle. The objective of Phase II was to develop a neural network that can learn how to adjust the stability and control derivatives to account for failures or modeling deficiencies. The objective of Phase III was to develop a flight control system that uses the neural network outputs as a basis for controlling the aircraft. The flight test of the IFCS was performed in stages. In the first stage, the Phase I version of the pre-trained neural network was flown in a passive mode. The neural network software was running using flight data inputs with the outputs provided to instrumentation only. The IFCS was not used to control the airplane. In another stage of the flight test, the Phase I pre-trained neural network was integrated into a Phase III version of the flight control system. The Phase I pretrained neural network provided realtime stability and control derivatives to a Phase III controller that was based on a stochastic optimal feedforward and feedback technique (SOFFT). This combined Phase I/III system was operated together with the research flight-control system (RFCS) of the F-15 ACTIVE during the flight test. The RFCS enables the pilot to switch quickly from the experimental- research flight mode back to the safe conventional mode. These initial IFCS ACP flight tests were completed in April 1999. The Phase I/III flight test milestone was to demonstrate, across a range of subsonic and supersonic flight conditions, that the pre-trained neural network could be used to supply real-time aerodynamic stability and control derivatives to the closed-loop optimal SOFFT flight controller. Additional objectives attained in the flight test included (1) flight qualification of a neural-network-based control system; (2) the use of a combined neural-network/closed-loop optimal flight-control system to obtain level-one handling qualities; and (3) demonstration, through variation of control gains, that different handling qualities can be achieved by setting new target parameters. In addition, data for the Phase-II (on-line-learning) neural network were collected, during the use of stacked-frequency- sweep excitation, for post-flight analysis. Initial analysis of these data showed the potential for future flight tests that will incorporate the real-time identification and on-line learning aspects of the IFCS.

Experience with synchronous and asynchronous digital control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regenie, V. A.; Chacon, C. V.; Lock, W. P.

1986-01-01

Flight control systems have undergone a revolution since the days of simple mechanical linkages; presently the most advanced systems are full-authority, full-time digital systems controlling unstable aircraft. With the use of advanced control systems, the aerodynamic design can incorporate features that allow greater performance and fuel savings, as can be seen on the new Airbus design and advanced tactical fighter concepts. These advanced aircraft will be and are relying on the flight control system to provide the stability and handling qualities required for safe flight and to allow the pilot to control the aircraft. Various design philosophies have been proposed and followed to investigate system architectures for these advanced flight control systems. One major area of discussion is whether a multichannel digital control system should be synchronous or asynchronous. This paper addressed the flight experience at the Dryden Flight Research Facility of NASA's Ames Research Center with both synchronous and asynchronous digital flight control systems. Four different flight control systems are evaluated against criteria such as software reliability, cost increases, and schedule delays.

An Overview of Controls and Flying Qualities Technology on the F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pahle, Joseph W.; Wichman, Keith D.; Foster, John V.; Bundick, W. Thomas

1996-01-01

The NASA F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) has been the flight test bed of a focused technology effort to significantly increase maneuvering capability at high angles of attack. Development and flight test of control law design methodologies, handling qualities metrics, performance guidelines, and flight evaluation maneuvers are described. The HARV has been modified to include two research control effectors, thrust vectoring, and actuated forebody strakes in order to provide increased control power at high angles of attack. A research flight control system has been used to provide a flexible, easily modified capability for high-angle-of-attack research controls. Different control law design techniques have been implemented and flight-tested, including eigenstructure assignment, variable gain output feedback, pseudo controls, and model-following. Extensive piloted simulation has been used to develop nonlinear performance guide-lines and handling qualities criteria for high angles of attack. This paper reviews the development and evaluation of technologies useful for high-angle-of-attack control. Design, development, and flight test of the research flight control system, control laws, flying qualities specifications, and flight test maneuvers are described. Flight test results are used to illustrate some of the lessons learned during flight test and handling qualities evaluations.

Flight metabolism in relation to speed in Chiroptera: testing the U-shape paradigm in the short-tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata.

PubMed

von Busse, Rhea; Swartz, Sharon M; Voigt, Christian C

2013-06-01

Aerodynamic theory predicts that flight for fixed-wing aircraft requires more energy at low and high speeds compared with intermediate speeds, and this theory has often been extended to predict speed-dependent metabolic rates and optimal flight speeds for flying animals. However, the theoretical U-shaped flight power curve has not been robustly tested for Chiroptera, the only mammals capable of flapping flight. We examined the metabolic rate of seven Seba's short-tailed fruit bats (Carollia perspicillata) during unrestrained flight in a wind tunnel at air speeds from 1 to 7 m s(-1). Following intra-peritoneal administration of (13)C-labeled Na-bicarbonate, we measured the enrichment in (13)C of exhaled breath before and after flight. We converted fractional turnover of (13)C into metabolic rate and power, based on the assumption that bats oxidized glycogen during short flights. Power requirements of flight varied with air speed in a U-shaped manner in five out of seven individuals, whereas energy turnover was not related to air speed in two individuals. Power requirements of flight were close to values predicted by Pennycuick's aerodynamic model for minimum power speed, but differed for maximum range speed. The results of our experiment support the theoretical expectation of a U-shaped power curve for flight metabolism in a bat.

Manual Manipulation of Engine Throttles for Emergency Flight Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Fullerton, C. Gordon; Maine, Trindel A.

2004-01-01

If normal aircraft flight controls are lost, emergency flight control may be attempted using only engines thrust. Collective thrust is used to control flightpath, and differential thrust is used to control bank angle. Flight test and simulation results on many airplanes have shown that pilot manipulation of throttles is usually adequate to maintain up-and-away flight, but is most often not capable of providing safe landings. There are techniques that will improve control and increase the chances of a survivable landing. This paper reviews the principles of throttles-only control (TOC), a history of accidents or incidents in which some or all flight controls were lost, manual TOC results for a wide range of airplanes from simulation and flight, and suggested techniques for flying with throttles only and making a survivable landing.

Flight control actuation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wingett, Paul T. (Inventor); Gaines, Louie T. (Inventor); Evans, Paul S. (Inventor); Kern, James I. (Inventor)

2004-01-01

A flight control actuation system comprises a controller, electromechanical actuator and a pneumatic actuator. During normal operation, only the electromechanical actuator is needed to operate a flight control surface. When the electromechanical actuator load level exceeds 40 amps positive, the controller activates the pneumatic actuator to offset electromechanical actuator loads to assist the manipulation of flight control surfaces. The assistance from the pneumatic load assist actuator enables the use of an electromechanical actuator that is smaller in size and mass, requires less power, needs less cooling processes, achieves high output forces and adapts to electrical current variations. The flight control actuation system is adapted for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and other flight vehicles, especially flight vehicles that are large in size and travel at high velocities.

Flight control actuation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wingett, Paul T. (Inventor); Gaines, Louie T. (Inventor); Evans, Paul S. (Inventor); Kern, James I. (Inventor)

2006-01-01

A flight control actuation system comprises a controller, electromechanical actuator and a pneumatic actuator. During normal operation, only the electromechanical actuator is needed to operate a flight control surface. When the electromechanical actuator load level exceeds 40 amps positive, the controller activates the pneumatic actuator to offset electromechanical actuator loads to assist the manipulation of flight control surfaces. The assistance from the pneumatic load assist actuator enables the use of an electromechanical actuator that is smaller in size and mass, requires less power, needs less cooling processes, achieves high output forces and adapts to electrical current variations. The flight control actuation system is adapted for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and other flight vehicles, especially flight vehicles that are large in size and travel at high velocities.

Expedition 13 flight controller on console during mission - Orbit 1, BFCR

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-08-31

JSC2006-E-38926 (31 Aug. 2006) --- Flight director Rick LaBrode discusses Expedition 13 mission activities with another flight controller (out of frame) in the Station (Blue) Flight Control Room in Houston's Mission Control Center.

14 CFR 29.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 29.673 Section 29.673 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AIRCRAFT... flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

14 CFR 29.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 29.673 Section 29.673 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AIRCRAFT... flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

14 CFR 27.673 - Primary flight control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Primary flight control. 27.673 Section 27.673 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AIRCRAFT... flight control. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

14 CFR 27.673 - Primary flight control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Primary flight control. 27.673 Section 27.673 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AIRCRAFT... flight control. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for immediate control of pitch, roll...

STS-125 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Orbit 2 - Flight Director Richard LaBrode

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-20

JSC2009-E-120845 (20 May 2009) --- The members of the STS-125 Orbit 2 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Rick LaBrode (right) is visible on the front row.

STS-125 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Orbit 3 - Flight Director Paul Dye

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-20

JSC2009-E-120846 (20 May 2009) --- The members of the STS-125 Orbit 3 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Paul Dye (center left) is visible on the front row.

STS-131 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Orbit 1 - Flight Director: Richard Jones

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-04-12

JSC2010-E-050680 (12 April 2010) --- The members of the STS-131 Orbit 1 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Richard Jones (second left) is on the front row.

Flight-testing of the self-repairing flight control system using the F-15 highly integrated digital electronic control flight research facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stewart, James F.; Shuck, Thomas L.

1990-01-01

Flight tests conducted with the self-repairing flight control system (SRFCS) installed on the NASA F-15 highly integrated digital electronic control aircraft are described. The development leading to the current SRFCS configuration is highlighted. Key objectives of the program are outlined: (1) to flight-evaluate a control reconfiguration strategy with three types of control surface failure; (2) to evaluate a cockpit display that will inform the pilot of the maneuvering capacity of the damage aircraft; and (3) to flight-evaluate the onboard expert system maintenance diagnostics process using representative faults set to occur only under maneuvering conditions. Preliminary flight results addressing the operation of the overall system, as well as the individual technologies, are included.

Mission Control Center (MCC) system specification for the shuttle Orbital Flight Test (OFT) timeframe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

The Mission Control Center Shuttle (MCC) Shuttle Orbital Flight Test (OFT) Data System (OFTDS) provides facilities for flight control and data systems personnel to monitor and control the Shuttle flights from launch (tower clear) to rollout (wheels stopped on runway). It also supports the preparation for flight (flight planning, flight controller and crew training, and integrated vehicle and network testing activities). The MCC Shuttle OFTDS is described in detail. Three major support systems of the OFTDS and the data types and sources of data entering or exiting the MCC were illustrated. These systems are the communication interface system, the data computation complex, and the display and control system.

Investigation of air transportation technology at Princeton University, 1988-1989

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1990-01-01

The Air Transportation Technology Program at Princeton University, a program emphasizing graduate and undergraduate student research, proceeded along several avenues during the past year. A study of optimal trajectories for penetration of microbursts when encounter is unavoidable was conducted. The emphasis of current wind shear research is on developing an expert system for wind shear avoidance. A knowledge-based reconfigurable flight control system that is implemented with the Pascal programming language using parallel microprocessors was developed. This expert system could be considered a prototype for a failure-tolerant control system that can be constructed using existing hardware. Development of a real-time cockpit simulator continued during the year. The simulator provides a single-person crew station with both conventional and advanced control devices; it currently is programmed to simulate the Navion single-engine general aviation airplane. Alternatives for the air traffic control system giving particular attention to the institutional structure of the FAA are analyzed. A simple numerical procedure for estimating the stochastic robustness of control systems is being investigated. The revitalization of the general aviation industry is also discussed.

X-43A Flight Controls

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baumann, Ethan

2006-01-01

A viewgraph presentation detailing X-43A Flight controls at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is shown. The topics include: 1) NASA Dryden, Overview and current and recent flight test programs; 2) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) Program, Program Overview and Platform Precision Autopilot; and 3) Hyper-X Program, Program Overview, X-43A Flight Controls and Flight Results.

Vision and air flow combine to streamline flying honeybees

PubMed Central

Taylor, Gavin J.; Luu, Tien; Ball, David; Srinivasan, Mandyam V.

2013-01-01

Insects face the challenge of integrating multi-sensory information to control their flight. Here we study a ‘streamlining' response in honeybees, whereby honeybees raise their abdomen to reduce drag. We find that this response, which was recently reported to be mediated by optic flow, is also strongly modulated by the presence of air flow simulating a head wind. The Johnston's organs in the antennae were found to play a role in the measurement of the air speed that is used to control the streamlining response. The response to a combination of visual motion and wind is complex and can be explained by a model that incorporates a non-linear combination of the two stimuli. The use of visual and mechanosensory cues increases the strength of the streamlining response when the stimuli are present concurrently. We propose this multisensory integration will make the response more robust to transient disturbances in either modality. PMID:24019053

Higher Harmonic Control for Tiltrotor Vibration Reduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nixon, Mark W.; Kvaternik, Raymond G.; Settle, T. Ben

1997-01-01

The results of a joint NASA/Army/Bell Helicopter Textron wind-tunnel test to assess the potential of higher harmonic control (HHC) for reducing vibrations in tiltrotor aircraft operating in the airplane mode of flight, and to evaluate the effectiveness of a Bell-developed HHC algorithm called MAVSS (Multipoint Adaptive Vibration Suppression System) are presented. The test was conducted in the Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel using an unpowered 1/5- scale semispan aeroelastic model of the V-22 which was modified to incorporate an HHC system employing both the rotor swashplate and the wing flaperon. The effectiveness of the swashplate and the flaperon acting either singly or in combination in reducing 1P and 3P wing vibrations over a wide range of tunnel airspeeds and rotor rotational speeds was demonstrated. The MAVSS algorithm was found to be robust to variations in tunnel airspeed and rotor speed, requiring only occasion-al on-line recalculations of the system transfer matrix.

Near Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Sail Engineering Development Unit Test Suite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lockett, Tiffany Russell; Few, Alexander; Wilson, Richard

2017-01-01

The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout project is a 6U reconnaissance mission to investigate a near Earth asteroid utilizing an 86m(sub 2) solar sail as the primary propulsion system. This will be the largest solar sail NASA has launched to date. NEA Scout is currently manifested on the maiden voyage of the Space Launch System in 2018. In development of the solar sail subsystem, design challenges were identified and investigated for packaging within a 6U form factor and deployment in cis-lunar space. Analysis was able to capture understanding of thermal, stress, and dynamics of the stowed system as well as mature an integrated sail membrane model for deployed flight dynamics. Full scale system testing on the ground is the optimal way to demonstrate system robustness, repeatability, and overall performance on a compressed flight schedule. To physically test the system, the team developed a flight sized engineering development unit with design features as close to flight as possible. The test suite included ascent vent, random vibration, functional deployments, thermal vacuum, and full sail deployments. All of these tests contributed towards development of the final flight unit. This paper will address several of the design challenges and lessons learned from the NEA Scout solar sail subsystem engineering development unit. Testing on the component level all the way to the integrated subsystem level. From optical properties of the sail material to fold and spooling the single sail, the team has developed a robust deployment system for the solar sail. The team completed several deployments of the sail system in preparation for flight at half scale (4m) and full scale (6.8m): boom only, half scale sail deployment, and full scale sail deployment. This paper will also address expected and received test results from ascent vent, random vibration, and deployment tests.

Launch Vehicle Manual Steering with Adaptive Augmenting Control In-flight Evaluations Using a Piloted Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, Curt

2014-01-01

An adaptive augmenting control algorithm for the Space Launch System has been developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center as part of the launch vehicles baseline flight control system. A prototype version of the SLS flight control software was hosted on a piloted aircraft at the Armstrong Flight Research Center to demonstrate the adaptive controller on a full-scale realistic application in a relevant flight environment. Concerns regarding adverse interactions between the adaptive controller and a proposed manual steering mode were investigated by giving the pilot trajectory deviation cues and pitch rate command authority.

Digital Electronic Engine Control (DEEC) Flight Evaluation in an F-15 Airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

Flight evaluation in an F-15 aircraft by digital electronic engine control (DEEC) was investigated. Topics discussed include: system description, F100 engine tests, effects of inlet distortion on static pressure probe, flight tests, digital electronic engine control fault detection and accommodation flight evaluation, flight evaluation of a hydromechanical backup control, augmentor transient capability of an F100 engine, investigation of nozzle instability, real time in flight thrust calculation, and control technology for future aircraft propulsion systems. It is shown that the DEEC system is a powerful and flexible controller for the F100 engine.

The Aircraft Simulation Role in Improving Flight Safety Through Control Room Training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shy, Karla S.; Hageman, Jacob J.; Le, Jeanette H.; Sitz, Joel (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center uses its six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) fixed-base simulations for mission control room training to improve flight safety and operations. This concept is applied to numerous flight projects such as the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV), the F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS), the X-38 Actuator Control Test (XACT), and X-43A (Hyper-X). The Dryden 6-DOF simulations are typically used through various stages of a project, from design to ground tests. The roles of these simulations have expanded to support control room training, reinforcing flight safety by building control room staff proficiency. Real-time telemetry, radar, and video data are generated from flight vehicle simulation models. These data are used to drive the control room displays. Nominal static values are used to complete information where appropriate. Audio communication is also an integral part of training sessions. This simulation capability is used to train control room personnel and flight crew for nominal missions and emergency situations. Such training sessions are also opportunities to refine flight cards and control room display pages, exercise emergency procedures, and practice control room setup for the day of flight. This paper describes this technology as it is used in the X-43A and F-15 IFCS and XACT projects.

Advanced Transport Operating System (ATOPS) Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) software description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wolverton, David A.; Dickson, Richard W.; Clinedinst, Winston C.; Slominski, Christopher J.

1993-01-01

The flight software developed for the Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) MicroVAX computer used on the Transport Systems Research Vehicle for Advanced Transport Operating Systems (ATOPS) research is described. The FM/FC software computes navigation position estimates, guidance commands, and those commands issued to the control surfaces to direct the aircraft in flight. Various modes of flight are provided for, ranging from computer assisted manual modes to fully automatic modes including automatic landing. A high-level system overview as well as a description of each software module comprising the system is provided. Digital systems diagrams are included for each major flight control component and selected flight management functions.

14 CFR 23.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 23.673 Section 23... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Design and Construction Control Systems § 23.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for...

14 CFR 23.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 23.673 Section 23... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Design and Construction Control Systems § 23.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for...

14 CFR 23.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 23.673 Section 23... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Design and Construction Control Systems § 23.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for...

14 CFR 23.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 23.673 Section 23... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Design and Construction Control Systems § 23.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for...

14 CFR 23.673 - Primary flight controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Primary flight controls. 23.673 Section 23... AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Design and Construction Control Systems § 23.673 Primary flight controls. Primary flight controls are those used by the pilot for...

Preliminary flight test results of a fly-by-throttle emergency flight control system on an F-15 airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. G.; Wells, Edward A.

1993-01-01

A multi-engine aircraft, with some or all of the flight control system inoperative, may use engine thrust for control. NASA Dryden has conducted a study of the capability and techniques for this emergency flight control method for the F-15 airplane. With an augmented control system, engine thrust, along with appropriate feedback parameters, is used to control flightpath and bank angle. Extensive simulation studies have been followed by flight tests. This paper discusses the principles of throttles-only control, the F-15 airplane, the augmented system, and the flight results including landing approaches with throttles-only control to within 10 ft of the ground.

Development and flight test experiences with a flight-crucial digital control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mackall, Dale A.

1988-01-01

Engineers and scientists in the advanced fighter technology integration (AFTI) F-16 program investigated the integration of emerging technologies into an advanced fighter aircraft. AFTI's three major technologies included: flight-crucial digital control, decoupled aircraft flight control, and integration of avionics, flight control, and pilot displays. In addition to investigating improvements in fighter performance, researchers studied the generic problems confronting the designers of highly integrated flight-crucial digital control. An overview is provided of both the advantages and problems of integration digital control systems. Also, an examination of the specification, design, qualification, and flight test life-cycle phase is provided. An overview is given of the fault-tolerant design, multimoded decoupled flight control laws, and integrated avionics design. The approach to qualifying the software and system designs is discussed, and the effects of design choices on system qualification are highlighted.

Application and flight test of linearizing transformations using measurement feedback to the nonlinear control problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Antoniewicz, Robert F.; Duke, Eugene L.; Menon, P. K. A.

1991-01-01

The design of nonlinear controllers has relied on the use of detailed aerodynamic and engine models that must be associated with the control law in the flight system implementation. Many of these controllers were applied to vehicle flight path control problems and have attempted to combine both inner- and outer-loop control functions in a single controller. An approach to the nonlinear trajectory control problem is presented. This approach uses linearizing transformations with measurement feedback to eliminate the need for detailed aircraft models in outer-loop control applications. By applying this approach and separating the inner-loop and outer-loop functions two things were achieved: (1) the need for incorporating detailed aerodynamic models in the controller is obviated; and (2) the controller is more easily incorporated into existing aircraft flight control systems. An implementation of the controller is discussed, and this controller is tested on a six degree-of-freedom F-15 simulation and in flight on an F-15 aircraft. Simulation data are presented which validates this approach over a large portion of the F-15 flight envelope. Proof of this concept is provided by flight-test data that closely matches simulation results. Flight-test data are also presented.

Spacecraft Design Thermal Control Subsystem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miyake, Robert N.

2008-01-01

The Thermal Control Subsystem engineers task is to maintain the temperature of all spacecraft components, subsystems, and the total flight system within specified limits for all flight modes from launch to end-of-mission. In some cases, specific stability and gradient temperature limits will be imposed on flight system elements. The Thermal Control Subsystem of "normal" flight systems, the mass, power, control, and sensing systems mass and power requirements are below 10% of the total flight system resources. In general the thermal control subsystem engineer is involved in all other flight subsystem designs.

Advanced Space Flight and Environmental Concerns

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whitaker, A.

2001-01-01

The aerospace industry has conquered numerous environmental challenges during the last decade. The aerospace industry of today has evolved due in part to the environmental challenges, becoming stronger, more robust, learning to push the limits of technology, materials and manufacturing, and performing cutting edge engineering.

Integrated testing of the Thales LPT9510 pulse tube cooler and the iris LCCE electronics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, Dean L.; Rodriguez, Jose I.; Carroll, Brian A.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has identified the Thales LPT9510 pulse tube cryocooler as a candidate low cost cryocooler to provide active cooling on future cost-capped scientific missions. The commercially available cooler can provide refrigeration in excess of 2 W at 100K for 60W of power. JPL purchased the LPT9510 cooler for thermal and dynamic performance characterization, and has initiated the flight qualification of the existing cooler design to satisfy near-term JPL needs for this cooler. The LPT9510 has been thermally tested over the heat reject temperature range of 0C to +40C during characterization testing. The cooler was placed onmore » a force dynamometer to measure the selfgenerated vibration of the cooler. Iris Technology has provided JPL with a brass board version of the Low Cost Cryocooler Electronics (LCCE) to drive the Thales cooler during characterization testing. The LCCE provides precision closed-loop temperature control and embodies extensive protection circuitry for handling and operational robustness; other features such as exported vibration mitigation and low frequency input current filtering are envisioned as options that future flight versions may or may not include based upon the mission requirements. JPL has also chosen to partner with Iris Technology for the development of electronics suitable for future flight applications. Iris Technology is building a set of radiation-hard, flight-design electronics to deliver to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Test results of the thermal, dynamic and EMC testing of the integrated Thales LPT9510 cooler and Iris LCCE electronics is presented here.« less

STS-125 Flight Controllers on Console - (Orbit Shift 2). Flight Director: Richard LaBrode

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-12

JSC2009-E-119390 (12 May 2009) --- Flight director Rick LaBrode monitors data at his console in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center during STS-125 flight day two activities.

Muscle Feasibility for Cosmos Rhesus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edgerton, V. Reggie (Principal Investigator); Roland, Roy R.; Hodgson, John A.

1994-01-01

The following tasks were proposed for the Cosmos project: 1) Complete recordings of all preflight candidates during performance of a foot pedal motor control task while in the space capsule mock-up. 2) Complete recordings of all preflight candidates during locomotion and postural tasks. 3) Complete recordings of 24-hour spontaneous cage activity in the two flight monkeys before and after flight and of at least three control (non-flight) monkeys after the flight has been completed. 4) Complete recordings of the foot pedal and motor control tasks during flight and postflight as scheduled. 5) Complete recordings of the vertical drop test pre, during and postflight for the two flight and three control monkeys. 6) Complete recordings of locomotion and posture tests of the two flight monkeys postflight. 7) Complete recordings of locomotion and postural tests of at least three control (non-flight) monkeys during the postflight period. 8) Recalibrate buckles of the two flight and of at least three control monkeys postflight. 9) Complete analysis of the 24 hour EMG recordings of all monkeys. 10) Complete analysis of the foot pedal, locomotor and postural motor control tasks for the two flight and three control monkeys. It was proposed that efforts in the first postflight year be concentrated on the two flight animals and three postflight animals.

Flight simulation for flight control computer S/N 0104-1 (ASTP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Flight control computer (FCC) 0104-I has been designated the prime unit for the SA-210 launch vehicle. The results of the final flight simulation for FCC S/N 0104-I are documented. These results verify satisfactory implementation of the design release and proper interfacing of the FCC with flight-type control sensor elements and simulated thrust vector control system.

ISS15A Flight Control Team in FCR-1 Orbit 1 - Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-03-20

JSC2009-E-060959 (20 March 2009) --- The members of the STS-119/15A ISS Orbit 1 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space station flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho (right) is visible on the front row.

STS-131/19A Flight Control Team in FCR-1 - Orbit 1- Flight Director Ron Spencer

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-04-14

JSC2010-E-052008 (14 April 2010) --- The members of the STS-131/19A ISS Orbit 2 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space station flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Ron Spencer (right) holds the STS-131 mission logo.

ISS ULF2 Flight Control Team in FCR-1 - Orbit 3 - Flight Director David Korth

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-03-20

JSC2009-E-061164 (20 March 2009) --- The members of the STS-119/15A ISS Orbit 3 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space station flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Flight director David Korth (right) is visible on the front row.

STS-131/19A Flight Control Team in FCR-1 - Orbit 1- Flight Director Courtney McMillan

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-04-14

JSC2010-E-052979 (14 April 2010) --- The members of the STS-131/19A ISS Orbit 1 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space station flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Courtenay McMillan (center) stands on the front row.

STS-131/19A Flight Control Team in FCR-1 - Orbit 3- Flight Director Ed Van Cise

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-04-14

JSC2010-E-052556 (14 April 2010) --- The members of the STS-131/19A ISS Orbit 3 flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space station flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Ed Van Cise holds the STS-131 mission logo.

A Flight Control System Architecture for the NASA AirSTAR Flight Test Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murch, Austin M.

2008-01-01

A flight control system architecture for the NASA AirSTAR infrastructure has been designed to address the challenges associated with safe and efficient flight testing of research control laws in adverse flight conditions. The AirSTAR flight control system provides a flexible framework that enables NASA Aviation Safety Program research objectives, and includes the ability to rapidly integrate and test research control laws, emulate component or sensor failures, inject automated control surface perturbations, and provide a baseline control law for comparison to research control laws and to increase operational efficiency. The current baseline control law uses an angle of attack command augmentation system for the pitch axis and simple stability augmentation for the roll and yaw axes.

Functional integration of vertical flight path and speed control using energy principles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lambregts, A. A.

1984-01-01

A generalized automatic flight control system was developed which integrates all longitudinal flight path and speed control functions previously provided by a pitch autopilot and autothrottle. In this design, a net thrust command is computed based on total energy demand arising from both flight path and speed targets. The elevator command is computed based on the energy distribution error between flight path and speed. The engine control is configured to produce the commanded net thrust. The design incorporates control strategies and hierarchy to deal systematically and effectively with all aircraft operational requirements, control nonlinearities, and performance limits. Consistent decoupled maneuver control is achieved for all modes and flight conditions without outer loop gain schedules, control law submodes, or control function duplication.

An overview of integrated flight-propulsion controls flight research on the NASA F-15 research airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Gatlin, Donald H.; Stewart, James F.

1995-01-01

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has been conducting integrated flight-propulsion control flight research using the NASA F-15 airplane for the past 12 years. The research began with the digital electronic engine control (DEEC) project, followed by the F100 Engine Model Derivative (EMD). HIDEC (Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control) became the umbrella name for a series of experiments including: the Advanced Digital Engine Controls System (ADECS), a twin jet acoustics flight experiment, self-repairing flight control system (SRFCS), performance-seeking control (PSC), and propulsion controlled aircraft (PCA). The upcoming F-15 project is ACTIVE (Advanced Control Technology for Integrated Vehicles). This paper provides a brief summary of these activities and provides background for the PCA and PSC papers, and includes a bibliography of all papers and reports from the NASA F-15 project.

Flexible Wing Base Micro Aerial Vehicles: Towards Flight Autonomy: Vision-Based Horizon Detection for Micro Air Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nechyba, Michael C.; Ettinger, Scott M.; Ifju, Peter G.; Wazak, Martin

2002-01-01

Recently substantial progress has been made towards design building and testifying remotely piloted Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). This progress in overcoming the aerodynamic obstacles to flight at very small scales has, unfortunately, not been matched by similar progress in autonomous MAV flight. Thus, we propose a robust, vision-based horizon detection algorithm as the first step towards autonomous MAVs. In this paper, we first motivate the use of computer vision for the horizon detection task by examining the flight of birds (biological MAVs) and considering other practical factors. We then describe our vision-based horizon detection algorithm, which has been demonstrated at 30 Hz with over 99.9% correct horizon identification, over terrain that includes roads, buildings large and small, meadows, wooded areas, and a lake. We conclude with some sample horizon detection results and preview a companion paper, where the work discussed here forms the core of a complete autonomous flight stability system.

The Lévy flight paradigm: random search patterns and mechanisms.

PubMed

Reynolds, A M; Rhodes, C J

2009-04-01

Over recent years there has been an accumulation of evidence from a variety of experimental, theoretical, and field studies that many organisms use a movement strategy approximated by Lévy flights when they are searching for resources. Lévy flights are random movements that can maximize the efficiency of resource searches in uncertain environments. This is a highly significant finding because it suggests that Lévy flights provide a rigorous mathematical basis for separating out evolved, innate behaviors from environmental influences. We discuss recent developments in random-search theory, as well as the many different experimental and data collection initiatives that have investigated search strategies. Methods for trajectory construction and robust data analysis procedures are presented. The key to prediction and understanding does, however, lie in the elucidation of mechanisms underlying the observed patterns. We discuss candidate neurological, olfactory, and learning mechanisms for the emergence of Lévy flight patterns in some organisms, and note that convergence of behaviors along such different evolutionary pathways is not surprising given the energetic efficiencies that Lévy flight movement patterns confer.

Nonlinear fractional order proportion-integral-derivative active disturbance rejection control method design for hypersonic vehicle attitude control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Jia; Wang, Lun; Cai, Guobiao; Qi, Xiaoqiang

2015-06-01

Near space hypersonic vehicle model is nonlinear, multivariable and couples in the reentry process, which are challenging for the controller design. In this paper, a nonlinear fractional order proportion integral derivative (NFOPIλDμ) active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) strategy based on a natural selection particle swarm (NSPSO) algorithm is proposed for the hypersonic vehicle flight control. The NFOPIλDμ ADRC method consists of a tracking-differentiator (TD), an NFOPIλDμ controller and an extended state observer (ESO). The NFOPIλDμ controller designed by combining an FOPIλDμ method and a nonlinear states error feedback control law (NLSEF) is to overcome concussion caused by the NLSEF and conversely compensate the insufficiency for relatively simple and rough signal processing caused by the FOPIλDμ method. The TD is applied to coordinate the contradiction between rapidity and overshoot. By attributing all uncertain factors to unknown disturbances, the ESO can achieve dynamic feedback compensation for these disturbances and thus reduce their effects. Simulation results show that the NFOPIλDμ ADRC method can make the hypersonic vehicle six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear model track desired nominal signals accurately and fast, has good stability, dynamic properties and strong robustness against external environmental disturbances.

Anthropometric considerations for a 4-axis side-arm flight controller

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Debellis, W. B.

1986-01-01

A data base on multiaxis side-arm flight controls was generated. The rapid advances in fly-by-light technology, automatic stability systems, and onboard computers have combined to create flexible flight control systems which could reduce the workload imposed on the operator by complex new equipment. This side-arm flight controller combines four controls into one unit and should simplify the pilot's task. However, the use of a multiaxis side-arm flight controller without complete cockpit integration may tend to increase the pilot's workload.

Development and Flight Test of an Emergency Flight Control System Using Only Engine Thrust on an MD-11 Transport Airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Burken, John J.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. Gordon

1997-01-01

An emergency flight control system that uses only engine thrust, called the propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system, was developed and flight tested on an MD-11 airplane. The PCA system is a thrust-only control system, which augments pilot flightpath and track commands with aircraft feedback parameters to control engine thrust. The PCA system was implemented on the MD-11 airplane using only software modifications to existing computers. Results of a 25-hr flight test show that the PCA system can be used to fly to an airport and safely land a transport airplane with an inoperative flight control system. In up-and-away operation, the PCA system served as an acceptable autopilot capable of extended flight over a range of speeds, altitudes, and configurations. PCA approaches, go-arounds, and three landings without the use of any normal flight controls were demonstrated, including ILS-coupled hands-off landings. PCA operation was used to recover from an upset condition. The PCA system was also tested at altitude with all three hydraulic systems turned off. This paper reviews the principles of throttles-only flight control, a history of accidents or incidents in which some or all flight controls were lost, the MD-11 airplane and its systems, PCA system development, operation, flight testing, and pilot comments.

Aeroelastic Model Structure Computation for Envelope Expansion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kukreja, Sunil L.

2007-01-01

Structure detection is a procedure for selecting a subset of candidate terms, from a full model description, that best describes the observed output. This is a necessary procedure to compute an efficient system description which may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. Structure computation as a tool for black-box modeling may be of critical importance in the development of robust, parsimonious models for the flight-test community. Moreover, this approach may lead to efficient strategies for rapid envelope expansion that may save significant development time and costs. In this study, a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) technique is investigated for computing efficient model descriptions of non-linear aeroelastic systems. The LASSO minimises the residual sum of squares with the addition of an l(Sub 1) penalty term on the parameter vector of the traditional l(sub 2) minimisation problem. Its use for structure detection is a natural extension of this constrained minimisation approach to pseudo-linear regression problems which produces some model parameters that are exactly zero and, therefore, yields a parsimonious system description. Applicability of this technique for model structure computation for the F/A-18 (McDonnell Douglas, now The Boeing Company, Chicago, Illinois) Active Aeroelastic Wing project using flight test data is shown for several flight conditions (Mach numbers) by identifying a parsimonious system description with a high percent fit for cross-validated data.

Performance seeking control program overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orme, John S.

1995-01-01

The Performance Seeking Control (PSC) program evolved from a series of integrated propulsion-flight control research programs flown at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) on an F-15. The first of these was the Digital Electronic Engine Control (DEEC) program and provided digital engine controls suitable for integration. The DEEC and digital electronic flight control system of the NASA F-15 were ideally suited for integrated controls research. The Advanced Engine Control System (ADECS) program proved that integrated engine and aircraft control could improve overall system performance. The objective of the PSC program was to advance the technology for a fully integrated propulsion flight control system. Whereas ADECS provided single variable control for an average engine, PSC controlled multiple propulsion system variables while adapting to the measured engine performance. PSC was developed as a model-based, adaptive control algorithm and included four optimization modes: minimum fuel flow at constant thrust, minimum turbine temperature at constant thrust, maximum thrust, and minimum thrust. Subsonic and supersonic flight testing were conducted at NASA Dryden covering the four PSC optimization modes and over the full throttle range. Flight testing of the PSC algorithm, conducted in a series of five flight test phases, has been concluded at NASA Dryden covering all four of the PSC optimization modes. Over a three year period and five flight test phases 72 research flights were conducted. The primary objective of flight testing was to exercise each PSC optimization mode and quantify the resulting performance improvements.

STS-125 Flight Controllers on Console - (Orbit Shift 2). Flight Director: Richard LaBrode

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-12

JSC2009-E-119397 (12 May 2009) --- Flight directors Rick LaBrode (left) and Chris Edelen monitor data at their console in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center during STS-125 flight day two activities.

14 CFR 121.543 - Flight crewmembers at controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Flight crewmembers at controls. 121.543... REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS Flight Operations § 121.543 Flight crewmembers at controls. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each required flight crewmember on...

14 CFR 121.543 - Flight crewmembers at controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Flight crewmembers at controls. 121.543... REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS Flight Operations § 121.543 Flight crewmembers at controls. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each required flight crewmember on...

14 CFR 121.543 - Flight crewmembers at controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Flight crewmembers at controls. 121.543... REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS Flight Operations § 121.543 Flight crewmembers at controls. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each required flight crewmember on...

14 CFR 121.543 - Flight crewmembers at controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Flight crewmembers at controls. 121.543... REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS Flight Operations § 121.543 Flight crewmembers at controls. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each required flight crewmember on...

14 CFR 121.543 - Flight crewmembers at controls.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Flight crewmembers at controls. 121.543... REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS Flight Operations § 121.543 Flight crewmembers at controls. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each required flight crewmember on...

Investigation of controlled flight into terrain : descriptions of flight paths for selected controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) aircraft accidents, 1985-1997

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-03-01

This report documents an investigation of the flight paths of 13 selected controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) aircraft accidents that occurred between 1985 and 1997. The Operations Assessment Division (DTS-43) and the Aviation Safety Division (DTS-...

A Coordinated Initialization Process for the Distributed Space Exploration Simulation (DSES)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Phillips, Robert; Dexter, Dan; Hasan, David; Crues, Edwin Z.

2007-01-01

This document describes the federate initialization process that was developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center with the HIIA Transfer Vehicle Flight Controller Trainer (HTV FCT) simulations and refined in the Distributed Space Exploration Simulation (DSES). These simulations use the High Level Architecture (HLA) IEEE 1516 to provide the communication and coordination between the distributed parts of the simulation. The purpose of the paper is to describe a generic initialization sequence that can be used to create a federate that can: 1. Properly initialize all HLA objects, object instances, interactions, and time management 2. Check for the presence of all federates 3. Coordinate startup with other federates 4. Robustly initialize and share initial object instance data with other federates.

Atmospheric reentry flight test of winged space vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inatani, Yoshifumi; Akiba, Ryojiro; Hinada, Motoki; Nagatomo, Makoto

A summary of the atmospheric reentry flight experiment of winged space vehicle is presented. The test was conducted and carried out by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in Feb. 1992 in Kagoshima Space Center. It is the first Japanese atmospheric reentry flight of the controlled lifting vehicle. A prime objective of the flight is to demonstrate a high speed atmospheric entry flight capability and high-angle-of-attack flight capability in terms of aerodynamics, flight dynamics and flight control of these kind of vehicles. The launch of the winged vehicle was made by balloon and solid propellant rocket booster which was also the first trial in Japan. The vehicle accomplishes the lfight from space-equivalent condition to the atmospheric flight condition where reaction control system (RCS) attitude stabilization and aerodynamic control was used, respectively. In the flight, the vehicle's attitude was measured by both an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and an air data sensor (ADS) which were employed into an auto-pilot flight control loop. After completion of the entry transient flight, the vehicle experienced unexpected instability during the atmospheric decelerating flight; however, it recovered the attitude orientation and completed the transonic flight after that. The latest analysis shows that it is due to the ADS measurement error and the flight control gain scheduling; what happened was all understood. Some details of the test and the brief summary of the current status of the post flight analysis are presented.

Practical aspects of modeling aircraft dynamics from flight data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iliff, K. W.; Maine, R. E.

1984-01-01

The purpose of parameter estimation, a subset of system identification, is to estimate the coefficients (such as stability and control derivatives) of the aircraft differential equations of motion from sampled measured dynamic responses. In the past, the primary reason for estimating stability and control derivatives from flight tests was to make comparisons with wind tunnel estimates. As aircraft became more complex, and as flight envelopes were expanded to include flight regimes that were not well understood, new requirements for the derivative estimates evolved. For many years, the flight determined derivatives were used in simulations to aid in flight planning and in pilot training. The simulations were particularly important in research flight test programs in which an envelope expansion into new flight regimes was required. Parameter estimation techniques for estimating stability and control derivatives from flight data became more sophisticated to support the flight test programs. As knowledge of these new flight regimes increased, more complex aircraft were flown. Much of this increased complexity was in sophisticated flight control systems. The design and refinement of the control system required higher fidelity simulations than were previously required.

Potential benefits of propulsion and flight control integration for supersonic cruise vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berry, D. T.; Schweikhard, W. G.

1976-01-01

Typical airframe/propulsion interactions such as Mach/altitude excursions and inlet unstarts are reviewed. The improvements in airplane performance and flight control that can be achieved by improving the interfaces between propulsion and flight control are estimated. A research program to determine the feasibility of integrating propulsion and flight control is described. This program includes analytical studies and YF-12 flight tests.

STS-125 Flight Control Team in WFCR - Ascent/Entry with Flight Director Norman Knight

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-21

JSC2009-E-121353 (21 May 2009) --- The members of the STS-125 Ascent and Entry flight control team pose for a group portrait in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Flight director Norm Knight (left) and astronaut Gregory H. Johnson, spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), hold the STS-125 mission logo.