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Full-Text Articles in Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics

Rigid Body Constrained Motion Optimization And Control On Lie Groups And Their Tangent Bundles, Brennan S. Mccann Oct 2023

Rigid Body Constrained Motion Optimization And Control On Lie Groups And Their Tangent Bundles, Brennan S. Mccann

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Rigid body motion requires formulations where rotational and translational motion are accounted for appropriately. Two Lie groups, the special orthogonal group SO(3) and the space of quaternions H, are commonly used to represent attitude. When considering rigid body pose, that is spacecraft position and attitude, the special Euclidean group SE(3) and the space of dual quaternions DH are frequently utilized. All these groups are Lie groups and Riemannian manifolds, and these identifications have profound implications for dynamics and controls. The trajectory optimization and optimal control problem on Riemannian manifolds presents significant opportunities for theoretical development. Riemannian optimization is an attractive …


Nonlinear Dynamics Analysis And Control Of Space Vehicles With Flexible Structures, Marco Fagetti Apr 2023

Nonlinear Dynamics Analysis And Control Of Space Vehicles With Flexible Structures, Marco Fagetti

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Space vehicles that implement hardware such as antennas, solar panels, and other extended appendages necessary for their respective missions must consider the nonlinear rotational and vibrational dynamics of these flexible structures. Formulation and analysis of these flexible structures must account for the rigid-flexible coupling present in the system dynamics for stability analysis and control design. The system model is represented by a flexible appendage attached to a central rigid body, where the flexible appendage is modeled as a cantilevered Euler-Bernoulli beam. Discretization techniques, such as the assumed modes method and the finite element method, are used to model the coupled …


Analytic Guidance Strategies For Passively Safe Rendezvous And Proximity Operations, Simon Shuster Dec 2020

Analytic Guidance Strategies For Passively Safe Rendezvous And Proximity Operations, Simon Shuster

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A safety ellipse is a type of relative motion trajectory that is commonly used for unmanned rendezvous and proximity operations. As the name suggests, safety ellipses are passively safe relative motion trajectories, which means that their natural motion inherently maintains a low collision risk. The focus of this dissertation is the derivation, analysis, and application of guidance strategies that reconfigure, establish, and exit a safety ellipse. The guidance strategies consist of a set of ∆v vectors and impulse times, all written in closed form. Through applications of optimal control theory and parameter optimization, it is shown that these maneuver …


Investigation Of Factors Impacting A Helicopter Height-Velocity Diagram, Timothy A. Brown Sep 2020

Investigation Of Factors Impacting A Helicopter Height-Velocity Diagram, Timothy A. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

A dynamic helicopter model was incorporated into an optimal control problem to determine minimal landing velocities. The solutions were determined using pseudospectral collocation methods as implemented by the GPOPS-II software. These solutions were then compiled to develop a HV diagram. An HV diagram displays regions of flight based on a helicopter's airspeed and height above the ground in which a safe landing would not be possible following engine failure. The applied methodology for constructing the HV diagram reduced issues involving solution convergence that was encountered in previous research. The influence of ground effect on the dynamic model was also investigated. …


Optimal Finite Thrust Guidance Methods For Constrained Satellite Proximity Operations Inspection Maneuvers, Eric R. Prince Sep 2018

Optimal Finite Thrust Guidance Methods For Constrained Satellite Proximity Operations Inspection Maneuvers, Eric R. Prince

Theses and Dissertations

Algorithms are developed to find optimal guidance for an inspector satellite operating nearby a resident space object (RSO). For a non-maneuvering RSO, methods are first developed for a satellite subject to maximum slew rates to conduct an initial inspection of an RSO, where the control variables include the throttle level and direction of the thrust. Second, methods are developed to optimally maneuver a satellite with on/off thrusters into a natural motion circumnavigation or teardrop trajectory, subject to lighting and collision constraints. It is shown that for on/off thrusters, a control sequence can be parameterized to a relatively small amount of …


Simplex Solutions For Optimal Control Flight Paths In Urban Environments, Michael D. Zollars, Richard G. Cobb, David J. Grymin Aug 2017

Simplex Solutions For Optimal Control Flight Paths In Urban Environments, Michael D. Zollars, Richard G. Cobb, David J. Grymin

Faculty Publications

This paper identifies feasible fight paths for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems in a highly constrained environment. Optimal control software has long been used for vehicle path planning and has proven most successful when an adequate initial guess is presented flight to an optimal control solver. Leveraging fast geometric planning techniques, a large search space is discretized into a set of simplexes where a Dubins path solution is generated and contained in a polygonal search corridor free of path constraints. Direct optimal control methods are then used to determine the optimal flight path through the newly defined search corridor. Two scenarios …


Optimal Control Methods For Missile Evasion, Ryan W. Carr Jul 2017

Optimal Control Methods For Missile Evasion, Ryan W. Carr

Theses and Dissertations

Optimal control theory is applied to the study of missile evasion, particularly in the case of a single pursuing missile versus a single evading aircraft. It is proposed to divide the evasion problem into two phases, where the primary considerations are energy and maneuverability, respectively. Traditional evasion tactics are well documented for use in the maneuverability phase. To represent the first phase dominated by energy management, the optimal control problem may be posed in two ways, as a fixed final time problem with the objective of maximizing the final distance between the evader and pursuer, and as a free final …


Optimal Control Of An Uninhabited Loyal Wingman, Clay J. Humphreys Sep 2016

Optimal Control Of An Uninhabited Loyal Wingman, Clay J. Humphreys

Theses and Dissertations

As researchers strive to achieve autonomy in systems, many believe the goal is not that machines should attain full autonomy, but rather to obtain the right level of autonomy for an appropriate man-machine interaction. A common phrase for this interaction is manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T), a subset of which, for unmanned aerial vehicles, is the concept of the loyal wingman. This work demonstrates the use of optimal control and stochastic estimation techniques as an autonomous near real-time dynamic route planner for the DoD concept of the loyal wingman. First, the optimal control problem is formulated for a static threat environment and …


Experimental Investigation Of Stochastic Parafoil Guidance Using A Graphics Processing Unit, Nathan Slegers, Andrew Brown, Jonathan Rogers Mar 2015

Experimental Investigation Of Stochastic Parafoil Guidance Using A Graphics Processing Unit, Nathan Slegers, Andrew Brown, Jonathan Rogers

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Control of autonomous systems subject to stochastic uncertainty is a challenging task. In guided airdrop applications, random wind disturbances play a crucial role in determining landing accuracy and terrain avoidance. This paper describes a stochastic parafoil guidance system which couples uncertainty propagation with optimal control to protect against wind and parameter uncertainty in the presence of impact area obstacles. The algorithm uses real-time Monte Carlo simulation performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to evaluate robustness of candidate trajectories in terms of delivery accuracy, obstacle avoidance, and other considerations. Building upon prior theoretical developments, this paper explores performance of the …


Terminal Guidance Of Autonomous Parafoils In High Wind-To-Airspeed Ratios, Nathan Slegers, O A. Yakimenko Jan 2011

Terminal Guidance Of Autonomous Parafoils In High Wind-To-Airspeed Ratios, Nathan Slegers, O A. Yakimenko

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Autonomous precision placement of parafoils is challenging because of their limited control authority and sensitivity to winds. In particular, when wind speed is near the airspeed, guidance is further complicated by the parafoils inability to penetrate the wind. This article specifically addresses the terminal phase and develops an approach for generating optimal trajectories in real-time based on the inverse dynamics in the virtual domain. The method results in efficient solution of a two-point boundary-value problem using only a single optimization parameter allowing the trajectory to be generated at a high rate, mitigating effects of the unknown winds. It is shown …