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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Vertical Take-Off And Landing Control Via Dual-Quaternions And Sliding Mode, Joshua Sonderegger
Vertical Take-Off And Landing Control Via Dual-Quaternions And Sliding Mode, Joshua Sonderegger
Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses
The landing and reusability of space vehicles is one of the driving forces into renewed interest in space utilization. For missions to planetary surfaces, this soft landing has been most commonly accomplished with parachutes. However, in spite of their simplicity, they are susceptible to parachute drift. This parachute drift makes it very difficult to predict where the vehicle will land, especially in a dense and windy atmosphere such as Earth. Instead, recent focus has been put into developing a powered landing through gimbaled thrust. This gimbaled thrust output is dependent on robust path planning and controls algorithms. Being able to …
Stochastic Model Predictive Control Via Fixed Structure Policies, Elias Wilson
Stochastic Model Predictive Control Via Fixed Structure Policies, Elias Wilson
Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses
In this work, the model predictive control problem is extended to include not only open-loop control sequences but also state-feedback control laws by directly optimizing parameters of a control policy. Additionally, continuous cost functions are developed to allow training of the control policy in making discrete decisions, which is typically done with model-free learning algorithms. This general control policy encompasses a wide class of functions and allows the optimization to occur both online and offline while adding robustness to unmodelled dynamics and outside disturbances. General formulations regarding nonlinear discrete-time dynamics and abstract cost functions are formed for both deterministic and …
Dynamic And Control Of Air-Bearing Spacecraft Simulator, Jacob Joseph Korczyk
Dynamic And Control Of Air-Bearing Spacecraft Simulator, Jacob Joseph Korczyk
Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses
An air bearing is being designed as a spacecraft rotational motion simulator, featuring the Sawyer Robot and its control box. The objective is to maneuver the robot as desired, performing operations specific to on-orbit servicing operations while maintaining stability of the system. Before the control can be designed, the dynamics of the platform and the robot must be modeled. The dynamics of the robot can be derived utilizing a Newton-Euler recursive approach. By beginning with a simple pendulum, then adding links (degrees of freedom) to more closely resemble the Sawyer arm, the equations of motion for the robot can be …
Dynamics And Control Of Higher-Order Nonholonomic Systems, Jaime Rubio HerváS
Dynamics And Control Of Higher-Order Nonholonomic Systems, Jaime Rubio HerváS
Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses
A theoretical framework is established for the control of higher-order nonholonomic systems, defined as systems that satisfy higher-order nonintegrable constraints. A model for such systems is developed in terms of differential-algebraic equations defined on a higher-order tangent bundle. A number of control-theoretic properties such as nonintegrability, controllability, and stabilizability are presented. Higher-order nonholonomic systems are shown to be strongly accessible and, under certain conditions, small time locally controllable at any equilibrium. There are important examples of higher-order nonholonomic systems that are asymptotically stabilizable via smooth feedback, including space vehicles with multiple slosh modes and Prismatic-Prismatic-Revolute (PPR) robots moving open liquid …