Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics Commons^™

Uas Capabilities And Performance Modeling For Application Analysis, Brent Terwilliger, Dennis Vincenzi, David Ison, Rene Herron, Todd Smith

Publications

Our team of researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide has been actively compiling published performance data associated with commercially-off-the-shelf (COTS) group 1 to 3 fixed-wing and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in an effort to develop statistical models of each category. The captured data, which includes maximum speed, cruise speed, endurance, weights, wind limitations, and costs, is used to calculate capabilities including range (one-way and return), time to objective, station keeping duration, maneuver requirements, and derive limited missing information (e.g., component speeds and weights). The benefit from assembling such a unified collection of information and the calculation …

Attitude Determination & Control System Design And Implementation For A 6u Cubesat Proximity Operations Mission, Francisco J. Franquiz

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this work is to discuss the attitude determination and control system (ADCS) design process and implementation for a 12 kg, 6U (36.6 cm x 23.9 cm x 27.97 cm) CubeSat class nano-satellite. The design is based on the requirements and capabilities of the Application for Resident Space Object Proximity Analysis and IMAging (ARAPAIMA) proximity operations mission. The satellite is equipped with a cold gas propulsion system capable of exerting 2.5 mN m torques in both directions about each body axis. The attitude sensors include an angular rate gyro and star tracker (STR), supplemented by the payload optical …

Autonomous Satellite Recovery Vehicle, William Lewis, Devonte Grantham, Francisco Pastrana, Shane Williams, Joshua Moffett, Jessy Law, Kyle Ouellette, Janet Marnane

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

In collaboration with ERFSEDS, we would like to send a small satellite attached to a quad-copter as the payload for ERFSEDS rocket which will reach an altitude of 10,000 feet. The quad-copters objective will be to collect atmospheric data as it descends. Our plan is to 3-D print a new chassis for the quad-copters electronic components and arms that will allow the quad-copter to fold its arms inwards to meet the required space constraints. After launching the rocket, the satellite will be deployed at the target altitude and begin collecting data once jettisoned from the rocket. Once reaching 2,000 feet …

Microcontrollers In The Aviation Classroom, Padraig Houlahan

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

Modern commercial aircraft are increasingly dependent on digital technologies that detect sensor data and pilot control movements, interpret them, and then issue appropriate control signals to remote motors that move control surfaces. Because such technologies are innately complex, it would appear there is an unacceptably large academic burden on introducing them into the undergraduate pilot's curriculum .

However, in recent years there has been an explosion of interest in using micro-controllers in academic teaching (high-school and undergraduate levels) and in hobby applications, resulting in a large, online, freely available knowledgebase of techniques and solutions. Here, I demonstrate how easy it …

Thinking Rather Than Panicking About The Current Drone Threat, Tom Foley, Tyrone Groh

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

Originally titled "UAS Threats in Sport Venues," the authors opted to expand their focus to better to all threats from UASs, and to encourage better preparation for and responses to such threats. Foley and Groh discuss different strategies.

Vision-Aided Navigation For Gps-Denied Environments Using Landmark Feature Identification, Tennyson Samuel John

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In recent years, unmanned autonomous vehicles have been used in diverse applications because of their multifaceted capabilities. In most cases, the navigation systems for these vehicles are dependent on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Many applications of interest, however, entail operations in environments in which GPS is intermittent or completely denied. These applications include operations in complex urban or indoor environments as well as missions in adversarial environments where GPS might be denied using jamming technology.

This thesis investigate the development of vision-aided navigation algorithms that utilize processed images from a monocular camera as an alternative to GPS. The vision-aided …

Achieving Global Range In Future Subsonic And Supersonic Airplanes, Nihad E. Daidzic Ph.D., Sc.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

No commercial airplane in service today is able to fly half great-circle distances over the globe and achieve the non-stop or the global range to any antipodal location on Earth. A subsonic jetliner has the optimum cruising speed at Mach numbers approaching the drag divergence Mach number while still preserving relatively high aerodynamic efficiency. Various fuel-flow laws were used to investigate the cruise performance of subsonic and supersonic aircraft. The effect of wind and aircraft weight and how it affects the optimal cruising airspeed was investigated. Of all different operational cruising techniques, the cruise-climb at high Mach numbers is the …

Improving Airplane Touchdown Control By Utilizing The Adverse Elevator Effect, Nihad E. Daidzic Ph.D., Sc.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The main objective of this original research article is to understand the short-term dynamic behavior of the transport-category airplane during landing flare elevator control application. Increasing the pitch angle to arrest the sink rate, the elevator will have to produce negative lift to rotate the airplane’s nose upward. This has an immediate adverse effect of initially accelerating airplane downward. A mathematical model of landing flare based on the flat-Earth longitudinal dynamics of rigid airplane was developed which is realistic only on very short time-scales as pitch stiffness and damping were neglected. Pilot control scenarios using impulse and step elevator pull-up …

Robust And Adaptive Nonlinear Control Of Limit Cycle Oscillations In Uavs Using Synthetic Jet Actuators, Natalie Ramos Pedroza

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Limit cycle oscillations (LCO), also known as utter, cause significant challenges in fight control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and could potentially lead to structural damage and catastrophic failures. LCO can be described as vibrational motions in the pitching and plunging displacements of an aircraft wing. Even in low Reynolds number (low-Re) fight regimes, LCO can exceed the limiting boundary for safe UAV fight. Further, as practical considerations motivate the design of smaller, lighter weight UAVs, there is a growing need for UAV systems that do not require heavy mechanical actuators (e.g., ailerons). To address this, the use of synthetic …

Robust Image-Based Visual Servo Control Of An Uncertain Missile Airframe, Murat Tunca Aygun

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A nonlinear vision-based guidance law is presented for a missile-target scenario in the presence of model uncertainty and unknown target evasive maneuvers. To ease the readability of this thesis, detailed explanations of any relevant mathematical tools are provided, including stability definitions, the procedure of Lyapunov-based stability analysis, sliding mode control fundamentals, basics on visual servo control, and other basic nonlinear control tools. To develop the vision-based guidance law, projective geometric relationships are utilized to combine the image kinematics with the missile dynamics in an integrated visual dynamic system. The guidance law is designed using an image-based visual servo control method …

Mapping Automotive Like Controls To A General Aviation Aircraft, Christopher G. Carvalho

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

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 …

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 …

Guidance, Navigation And Control Of A Fly-By-Wire Transport Category Airship Designed For Hover Cargo Delivery, Harshad H. Lalan

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this thesis is to develop fly-by-wire pilot controls for a transport category airship propelled with six thrust vectoring engines, and to develop control laws to maintain position, heading, and attitude during hover and cargo operations. Owing to the large body area, most airships require that they be pointed into the wind to maintain their position. This research aims at controlling an airship attitude and position during hover cargo delivery, irrespective of the wind direction.

Control laws were developed for two primary modes of the airship: Flight (High Speed Mode) and Hover (Cargo Delivery Mode). Different sets of …

Modeling And Control Of Space Vehicles With Fuel Slosh Dynamics, Mahmut Reyhanoglu

Physical Sciences - Daytona Beach

"Ever since the launch of the early high-efficiency rockets, controlling liquid fuel slosh within a launch vehicle has been a major design concern. Moreover, with today's large and complex spacecraft, a substantial mass of fuel is necessary to place them into orbit and to perform orbital maneuvers."--from the book's introduction

Translational And Rotational Control Of An Asteroid Orbiting Satellite, Takahiro Kuhara

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The objective of this thesis is to analyze an effective control scheme for an asteroid orbiting satellite. The thesis first summarizes the progress made in the dynamics formulation of such satellites and then provides a theoretical framework for the control system design. The control objective is to maintain a nadir pointing attitude on a circular equatorial orbit. Using established control design techniques, feedback laws are constructed to control both rotational and translational motion of the satellite so that the control objective is achieved. Computer simulations are carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the control laws.

Formation Feedback Control Of Uav Flight, Stephen Stegall

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis is a study of formation control with autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles using the formation as feedback. There is also an investigation of formation methods presenting insight into different algorithms for formations. A rigid formation is achieved using a proportional-derivative virtual structure with a formation feedback controller. There is an emphasis on stick controlled aerodynamics. The rigid formation is verified by a simulation of a longitudinal model. Formation control ideas are presented for rigid formations.

Implementation Of A Low Cost Micro Electro Mechanical Systems Inertial Navigation Solution, Charles Njenga

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study is to develop a low cost navigation solution for General Aviation (GA) aircraft and flight testing aircraft. This low cost solution uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) coupled with an Inertial Navigation Solution (INS) to provide a more accurate, stable navigation solution that can be acceptable for aircraft navigation. Lab VIEW was utilized to perform data acquisition and computation. LabVIEW was the backbone software to perform real time computation. MATLAB ® Simulink ® was used to plot graphs for final analysis of the code. A software Kalman Filter was utilized to provide signal stability and …

Attitude Determination Using Imaging Lidar, Camille Decoust

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study is to determine the attitude of an out of control object using a new technology called lidar (Light Ranging and Detection). As the number of spacecraft continues to grow, it is paramount to introduce a new type of autonomous on-orbit satellite inspection and repair involving docking. Traditional space vision technology is based on video systems. This method is limited by the necessity of operating when the target is illuminated by the sunlight or using its own source of illumination. The use of laser imaging technology offers an elegant solution to these challenges. This approach allows …

Control System Design And Simulation Of Spacecraft Formations Via Virtual Formation Approach, Pavan Donepudi

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The problem of formation control of multiple spacecraft using the virtual structure approach is studied. The thesis first summarizes the progress made in the area of spacecraft formation control and then provides an overview of the virtual structure method. Modifying earlier established control design techniques, new feedback laws are constructed to control both the rotational and translational motion of a group of spacecraft. Several computer simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the modified control laws. The ephemeris and attitude data files generated via Matlab are exported to Satellite Tool Kit (STK) to create 3D animations. Various formation scenarios …

Optimization Of Active Rendezvous Trajectories By Genetic Algorithms, Marie Emmanuelle Ricour

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Trajectory optimization is and will remain a hot topic in the engineering field. Because analytical or exact solutions are often difficult and sometimes impossible to compute, there is a need for alternative and efficient methods. UnderWater Vehicles (UWV) trajectories and rendezvous trajectories of continuous low-thrust spacecraft are examined. One of the methods to solve such problems is the Genetic Algorithm (GA) method. In this work, a GA has been developed using Matlab®. It treats possible solutions to the studied problems as individuals and eventually converges to an optimal or near optimal solution. Genetic Algorithms have been used previously to solve …

Evaluation Of Probabilistic Methodology For Predicting Satellite Tracking Resources, Matthew Lynn Stubbe

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This research evaluates a probabilistic methodology for estimating the ability of satellite tracking networks to provide tracking and data acquisition services to large constellations of satellites. This approach, developed by Hagar is evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations of optimal satellite contact scheduling on a tracking network for a certain class of satellites. The actual results of the scheduled Monte Carlo simulations were then compared to the predicted values computed with Hagar's methodology for a range constellation and network sizes. Comparison methods include percent difference, a Wilcoxon signed ranks test and a Mann-Whitney U test.

The Monte Carlo simulations were run …

Maneuvering Control Of A Spacecraft With Propellant Sloshing, Philip A. Savella

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Propellant slosh has been a problem studied in spacecraft designs since the early days of large, liquid-fuel rockets. The conventional design solution involves physical structures inside the fuel tanks that limit propellant motion. Although effective, baffles and bladders add to spacecraft mass and structural complexity. In this research, the sloshing fuel mass is treated as an unactuated degree of freedom within a rigid body. Specifically, the propellant is modeled as a pendulum mass anchored at the center of a spherical tank. After obtaining the coupled equations of motion, several linear controllers are developed to achieve planar spacecraft pitch-maneuvers while suppressing …

Modeling And Slew-Maneuver Control Of A Flexible Spacecraft, Jeremy E. Eckhart

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Slew-maneuver control problem is studied for a flexible spacecraft consisting of a rigid main body to which a long flexible appendage is attached. Nonlinear dynamical system models are developed using both distributed parameter modeling and discrete parameter modeling; these models are shown to be equivalent for appropriately chosen system parameters. Lyapunov-based nonlinear feedback controllers are designed for the control of rigid-body motion while suppressing the lowest frequency vibrational mode. In case of large-angle maneuvers, these nonlinear controllers are shown to outperform the linearization-based controllers including the filtered proportional-derivative (PD) controllers as well as the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controllers. Finally, …

An Experimental Investigation Of Direct And Indirect Viewing Of A Remote Manipulation, Stephen N. Plishka

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study was to evaluate direct and indirect viewing of a remote manipulation. With continued exploration of inner and outer space, the ability to directly manipulate objects is lost due to the nature of operating in harsh environments. Remote viewing and operation of equipment is used in such things as the space shuttle manipulator arm, orthoscopic surgery, undersea exploration, and hazardous material management. Most of these operations do not have the luxury of direct viewing. This study will compare the effects of direct viewing vs. indirect viewing from three different viewing distances of 20cm, 60cm and 100cm.