Aeronautical Vehicles Commons^™

Fadec Advances Allow Better Engine Performance, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

Electric Motor & Power Source Selection For Small Aircraft Propulsion, Jeremy Fehrenbacher, David L. Stanley, Mary E. Johnson Dr., Jeffrey Honchell

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

The research conducted in this project is on electrical propulsion in aviation. A Cessna 172K aircraft with a Lycoming O-320-E2D piston engine serves as a baseline measurement. Investigation of the components required for electrical flight is performed, and components are selected based on market availability and operational performance criteria.

This research focuses on electrical propulsion in the aviation industry, and is tailored to aircraft within the General Aviation sector leading to the following research question: Can current electric motor and battery technologies conceptually support flight operations for a Cessna 172K in terms of aircraft performance criteria?

The results explore the …

Electronic Warfare By Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Aydin Meric

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Technology continues to evolve rapidly by the day. Developments in technology should be followed closely if a country wants to become more powerful. Nowadays nobody can afford to ignore the importance of Electronic Warfare and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in military applications. Both of them play a crucial role in military operations that they can change the course of a war.

There are different kinds of Electronic Warfare methods that can be applied according to the situations and any evolving circumstances. In the beginning Electronic Warfare was used mainly for defensive purposes, but these days Electronic Warfare is used for …

A Midsummer Night’S Dream (With Flying Robots), Robin Murphy, Dylan Shell, Amy Guerin, Brittany Duncan, Benjamin Fine, Kevin Pratt, Takis Zourntos

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Seven flying robot “fairies” joined human actors in the Texas A&M production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production was a collaboration between the departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Theater Arts. The collaboration was motivated by two assertions. First, that the performing arts have principles for creating believable agents that will transfer to robots. Second, the theater is a natural testbed for evaluating the response of untrained human groups (both actors and the audience) to robots interacting with humans in shared spaces, i.e., were believable agents created? The production used two types …

Adverse Elevator Effect In Landing Flare, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Of An Extreme Aspect Ratio Hale Uav, Bryan J. Morrisey

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of an Extreme Aspect Ratio HALE UAV

Bryan J. Morrisey

Development of High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft systems is part of a vision for a low cost communications/surveillance capability. Applications of a multi payload aircraft operating for extended periods at stratospheric altitudes span military and civil genres and support battlefield operations, communications, atmospheric or agricultural monitoring, surveillance, and other disciplines that may currently require satellite-based infrastructure. Presently, several development efforts are underway in this field, including a project sponsored by DARPA that aims at producing an aircraft that can sustain flight for multiple years and …

A Compact Lidar For Aircraft Ozone Atmospheric Measurements, Joel A. Marcia

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Researchers and the general public have expressed great concern over how human activities exacerbate pollution's deteriorating impact upon the environment. Effects such as global warming, air quality and ozone layer depletion are but a few examples that can have a dramatic effect on the quality of life worldwide.

A compact lidar system for the purpose of aircraft ozone atmospheric measurements was tested and evaluated. This system will eventually be deployed for aircraft-based, and possibly unpiloted atmospheric vehicle (UAV), ozone and aerosol measurements to improve our understanding of ozone production and transport. Each of the major subsystems was characterized and from …

Characterizing The Exhaust Plume Of The Three-Electrode Micro Pulsed Plasma Thrusters, Myeongkyo Seo

Theses and Dissertations

Three-electrode micro-PPTs are a new version of two electrode micro-PPTs devices. Performance predictions and contamination expectations are essential characteristics needed by satellite designers. In order to focus on thruster specific impulse, thrust and efficiency, measuring the exhaust velocity or impulse bit and propellant consumption rate is essential. While this is not always possible to measure directly, focusing on the ejected mass from the PPT provides significant information allowing determination of these performance statistics. Specifically, focusing on exhaust angle distribution and velocity of the exhaust particles is the emphasis of this work. The results show that the three-electrode micro-PPT is more …

Detecting Portable Electronic Devices Onboard Commercial Aircraft, Randy Woods

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The need to detect unauthorized usage of intentionally transmitting portable electronic devices (PEDs) onboard commercial aircraft is growing while still allowing passengers to use selected unintentionally transmitting devices, such as laptop computers and CD players, during non-critical stages of flight. This thesis presents the development and testing of an installed system for detecting PEDs over multiple frequency bands. Additionally, the advantages of a fixed versus mobile system are discussed.

Data is presented to cover the frequency range of 20 MHz to 6.5 GHz with special attention given to the cellular and PCS telephone bands, Bluetooth, and the family radio service …

Multivariable Flight Control Design Tool Incorporating Gain And Phase Root Locus, Yong Ki Yoon

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A challenging problem in flight control system design for highly maneuverable aircraft is the coordinated control of the lateral-directional axes. Design goals are based on desired flying qualities giving an indication of whether the response to pilot inputs will be acceptable. Satisfying these closed-loop design objectives employing a computerized flight control system requires multiple feedback and crossfeed paths which operate in a well coordinated fashion. Contemporary control design tools, which close all loops simultaneously, have addressed this problem for several decades. Concerns associated with these strategies are the complicated mathematical relationships between the designer inputs and resulting closed-loop properties, and …

Image Processing Technique For Runway Segmentation Using Color Spaces, Naresh Reddy Reddy

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Aircrafts of the future now face the challenge of growing demand for safety which will require a more significant level of pilot assistance than is available today. During an approach to the airport runway, an algorithm that continuously segments the runway from the rest of the background with very little human intervention is very useful for both enhancing the landing safety and reducing the pilot's work load. This thesis presents a novel method for segmenting airport runways on a clear day and in poor visibility conditions using the color space components. In this thesis, collages were formed for both runway …

Seasonal Adaptation Of Vegetation Color In Satellite Images, Srinivas Jakkula, Vamsi K.R. Mantena, Ramu Pedada, Yuzhong Shen, Jiang Li, Hamid R. Arabnia (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Remote sensing techniques like NDVI (Normal Difference vegetative Index) when applied to phenological variations in aerial images, ascertained the seasonal rise and decline of photosynthetic activity in different seasons, resulting in different color tones of vegetation. The rise and fall of NDVI values decide the biological response, either the green up or brown down [1]. Vegetation in green up period appears with more vegetative vigor and during brown down period it has a dry appearance. This paper proposes a novel method that identifies vegetative patterns in satellite images and then alters vegetation color to simulate seasonal changes based on training …

Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Prediction For Wireless Networks Inside Boeing Fuselages, Mennatoallah Youssef

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Commercial grade software is intended for electromagnetic predictions within office buildings; it was used to develop models to analyze propagation inside airplane fuselages. This study shows that Wireless XGTD and Insite software can accurately predict power propagation within airplane fuselages. Current work uses fuselage models, which contain additional internal components. A comparison was made between empty and full fuselage to examine the effects of internal components. Two propagation model types [Fast 3D and Full 3D] were also compared for accuracy to experimental study. It was concluded that completed fuselages are suggested for further simulation study as well as that the …

Atmospheric Water Vapor Lidar Measurements Using Analog And Photon Counting Techniques, Anuj Maheshkumar Shah

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Atmospheric water vapor measurements are essential for the understanding of Earth's weather and radiation budget, along with the water cycle. The remote sensing Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) technique is a commanding method used for water vapor measurements from aircraft, spaceborne, and ground-based platforms. The new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) water vapor DIAL system provides great feasibility due to the weight and size limitations. The system has significantly less weight, power consumption, and noise presence, thus making it great for UAV applications.

This thesis discusses a UAV water vapor DIAL system that was designed, developed, and evaluated. The research effort was …

The Fundamental Use And Extension Of Mode Stirred Chambers, Stephen A. Scearce

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Mode stirred chambers are used to perform radiated susceptibility tests on equipment that is expected to operate normally when exposed to electromagnetic (EM) fields. These tests are useful in identifying failure events in airborne equipment and other electronic equipment that are exposed to EM fields. This thesis is focused on further defining the operating environment of mode stirred chambers and relating the electromagnetic environment in the chamber to the electromagnetic environment of an actual aircraft. The majority of mode stirred chamber tests are implemented by using mechanical mode stirring. Mechanical mode stirring is the process of varying boundary conditions in …

Multiple Model Adaptive Control Of The Vista F-16, Michael J. Stepaniak

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple model adaptive control (MMAC) is investigated using the high-fidelity, nonlinear, six-degree-of-freedom Simulation Rapid-Prototyping Facility VISTA F-16. Detection of single actuator and sensor failures is considered, with an MMAC algorithm initially pursued which allows a controller specifically designed for each particular failure condition to replace the standard F-16 Block 40 flight control system (FCS) once the failure is detected. The synthesis of certain discrete-time LQG/PI controllers (those using control variables linearly dependent on state derivatives) is shown to be unattainable due to numerical difficulties. A novel control technique, termed control redistribution, is introduced which redistributes control commands (that would normally …

A Comparison Of The Neal-Smith And ΩSpΤΘ2, ΣSp, ΤΘ Flying Qualities Criteria, Brian A. Kish

Theses and Dissertations

Aircraft pitch response is a vital element of piloted vehicle flying qualities. There has been controversy over both the form and the substance of the requirements for short-term pitch response. Currently, MIL-STD- 1797A offers six different methods for evaluating short-term pitch response. These six methods often give conflicting results. Two methods are analyzed in this thesis - the Neal-Smith criteria and the ω_spΤ_θ2, ς_sp, τ_θ criteria. Domains from both criteria are mapped into each other identifying regions of conflict and regions of agreement. Parametric studies are performed and evaluated for trends. Further, a …

Comparative Analysis Of Guidance Algorithms For The Hyper Velocity Missile And Afti/F-16, Edward G. Rice

Theses and Dissertations

This project has provided me with endless intrigue. In considering the problem of guiding a hyper-velocity missile from a moving platform to a moving target, a common perception said it was just another Kalman Filtration design challenge. I began with lofty intentions of running a full up extended Kalman filter simulation but I became enthralled with the limited work available on the physical limitations of basic guidance algorithms. This became the emphasis of this project. The best filter scheme cannot overcome a guidance algorithms physical limitation. Only with an understanding of these limitations can one effectively integrate a guidance scheme …