Engineering Commons^™

Aircraft Longitudinal Control Experiment, Dustin Schaff

Aerospace Engineering

This paper describes the design, fabrication, and analysis of an experiment that demonstrates the stability and control system characteristics of an aircraft constrained at the center of gravity in an air flow field. Given a set of basic requirements, the physical system (including the airframe, wings, tail, and mounted ball bearing) was designed, modeled, and manufactured. With the aircraft placed in front of a fan and allowed to rotate freely with the ball bearing, an angular rate sensor and servo motor to the deflect the elevator may be connected to any computer using an analog/digital Data Acquisition (DAQ) device to …

Comet: Constrained Optimization Of Multiple-Dimensions For Efficient Trajectories, Michael Curt Conrad

Master's Theses

The paper describes the background and concepts behind a master’s thesis platform known as COMET (Constrained Optimization of Multiple-dimensions for Efficient Trajectories) created for mission designers to determine and evaluate suitable interplanetary trajectories. This includes an examination of the improvements to the global optimization algorithm, Differential Evolution, through a cascading search space pruning method and decomposition of optimization parameters. Results are compared to those produced by the European Space Agency’s Advanced Concept Team’s Multiple Gravity Assist Program. It was found that while discrepancies in the calculation of ΔV’s for flyby maneuvers exist between the two programs, COMET showed a noticeable …

Global Optimization Of Mga-Dsm Problems Using The Interplanetary Gravity Assist Trajectory Optimizer (Igato), Jason M. Bryan

Master's Theses

Interplanetary multiple gravity assist (MGA) trajectory optimization has long been a field of interest to space scientists and engineers. Gravity assist maneuvers alter a spacecraft's velocity vector and potentially allow spacecraft to achieve changes in velocity which would otherwise be unfeasible given our current technological limitations. Unfortunately, designing MGA trajectories is difficult and in order to find good solutions, deep space maneuvers (DSM) are often required which further increase the complexity of the problem. In addition, despite the active research in the field over the last 50 years, software for MGA trajectory optimization is scarce. A few good commercial, and …

An Analysis Of Stabilizing 3u Cubesats Using Gravity Gradient Techniques And A Low Power Reaction Wheel, Erich Bender

Aerospace Engineering

The purpose of this paper is to determine the feasibility of gravity gradient stabilizing a 3U CubeSat and then using a miniature reaction wheel to further increase stability characteristics. This paper also serves as a guide to understanding and utilizing quaternions in attitude control analysis. The analytical results show that using 33 centimeter booms and 400 gram tip masses, a 3U CubeSat will experience a maximum of 6 degrees of angular displacement in yaw and pitch, and less than .5 degrees of angular displacement in the nadir axis. A .120 kilogram miniature reaction wheel developed by Sinclair Interplanetary was introduced …

Development And Design Of A Hovering Controller For Operation In A Dynamic Asteroid Environment, Nicholas Georgiades

Aerospace Engineering

The project seeks to develop a dynamic model similar to that present near a solar system small body, and to design a controller suggested in other resources that will allow a spacecraft operating in this environment to hover in a fixed location in the relative reference frame of the small body. The paper discusses the derivation of the equations of motion used in the non-linear dynamic model, the design of the controller that will allow the spacecraft to hover, and the development of the control loop that will simulate the spacecraft hovering in the dynamic environment of the asteroid 1999 …

Imu Integration To The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator Power System, Wayland Chan

Electrical Engineering

The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator mimics the rotation dynamics of a spacecraft in orbit and acts as a test bed for spacecraft attitude control system development and demonstration. Prior to this project, the simulator measured its attitude dynamics from a total of seven sensors mounted on to the platform, including three micro-electromechanical system (MEMs) gyroscopes, and four motor encoders. This project entails the installation of an LN-200 high performance gyroscope, which will provide a greater measure of accuracy. The goal of this project is to design a power circuit that will integrate the LN-200 inertial measurement unit onto …

Boom Stability Control Final Project Report, Michael Barnes, Justin Carnahan, Daniel Fluitt, Alicia Johnstone

Mechanical Engineering

The BOOMStiC Gravity Gradient Boom and Turnstile Antenna project was developed to provide a passive attitude control system and better communications for future CubeSat satellites developed by California Polytechnic State University. The system utilizes the energy from a coilable metal spring to deploy a tip mass to a length of one meter from the side of the satellite. Calculations show the resulting gravity gradient torque causes to the satellite to settle two degrees from normal to the earth’s surface.

Integration Of Aeroservoelastic Properties Into The Nasa Dryden F/A-18 Simulator Using Flight Data From The Active Aeroelastic Wing Program, Alexander Wong Chin

Master's Theses

Aircraft structures have varying stiffness levels making them flexible. Consequently, this elastic property becomes increasingly important at high speeds affecting the flight dynamics of the aircraft. In high speed aircraft such as the F/A-18, elastic structural properties must be accounted for to ensure confidence in predicted flight dynamics in order to avoid adverse aeroelastic phenomena throughout flight.

Data from the F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) program was used to create aeroservoelastic (ASE) models at varying flight conditions. The discretized ASE models were integrated into the NASA Dryden F/A-18 simulator in parallel with the traditional 6-DOF (degrees-of-freedom) flight dynamics calculations to …

Flight Testing In A Simulation Based Environment, David W. Babka

Aerospace Engineering

Over the past two decades performance flight testing of full scale aircraft has transferred some of the testing workload to simulation based systems. Flight testing full scale aircraft in the real world environment has always been expensive, especially now with the rise in aviation fuel costs. Additionally, new emerging technologies require extensive testing and doing so in the full scale environment is cost prohibitive. A cheaper alternative is to test systems in a simulation based environment. Not only can aircraft be simulated via a computer, but all the aircrafts systems can be modeled in the simulation. Furthermore, most of the …

Aether, Thomas Cameron, Kristine Colton, Daren Childers

Electrical Engineering

Aether is a RC-style autonomous air vehicle that utilizes GPS positioning along with a wireless communication system to achieve a computer-controlled flight.

This report will incorporate the acquisition, design, integration, implementation and testing phases of the UAV development. Furthermore a discussion of troubleshooting as well as improvements for future projects will be included.