Attitude and Vibration Control of Flexible Spacecraft Using Singular Perturbation Approach

This paper addresses a composite two-time-scale control system for simultaneous three-axis attitude maneuvering and elastic mode stabilization of flexible spacecraft. By choosing an appropriate time coordinates transformation system, the spacecraft dynamics can be divided into double time-scale subsystems using singular perturbation theory (SPT). Attitude and vibration control laws are successively designed by considering a time bandwidths separation between the oscillatory flexible parts motion describing a fast subsystem and rigid body attitude dynamics as a slow subsystem. A nonlinear quaternion feedback control, based on modified sliding mode (MSM), is chosen for attitude control design and a strain rate feedback (SRF) scheme is developed for suppression of vibrational modes. In the attitude control law, the modification to sliding manifold for slow subsystem ensures that the spacecraft follows the shortest possible path to the sliding manifold and highly reduces the switching action. Stability proof of the overall closed-loop system is given via Lyapunov analysis. The proposed design approach is demonstrated to combine excellent performance in the compensation of residual flexible vibrations for the fully nonlinear system under consideration, as well as computational simplicity.

Combination of Two Nonlinear Techniques Applied to a 3-DOF Helicopter

A combination of two nonlinear control techniques, fractional order sliding mode and feedback linearization control methods, is applied to 3-DOF helicopter model. Increasing of the convergence rate is obtained by using proposed controller without increasing control effort. Because the proposed control law is robust against disturbance, so we only use the upper bound information of disturbance and estimation or measurement of the disturbance is not required. The performance of the proposed control scheme is compared with integer order sliding mode controller and results are justified by the simulation.

Enhancing the Supersonic Wind Tunnel Performance Based on Plenum Temperature Control

The application of fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) to the control of nonlinear processes, typically controlled by a human operator, is a topic of much study. In this paper, the design and application of a FLC is discussed to control the plenum chamber temperature for a blowdown supersonic wind tunnel (BSWT) with the aim of achieving the accurate and desired results. In this regard, first, a nonlinear mathematical model of special BSWT is developed in Matlab/Simulink software environment. Next, an artificially intelligent controller is designed using fuzzy logic approach. For this purpose, a proportional-derivative FLC (PD-FLC) system is developed in the Simulink toolbox to control the plenum stagnation temperature using a heater upstream of the plenum chamber. Finally, the system simulation results inside of the temperature and pressure controllers in comparison with the experimental run are presented. The results for Mach 2.5 blowdown run show the great performance of the Wind Tunnel Simulator Model and its temperature controller system.

Satellite Attitude Control Using Analytical Solutions to Approximations of the Hamilton-Jacobi Equation

The solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation associated with the nonlinear ℋ∞ control problem is approximated using a Taylor series expansion. A recently developed analytical solution method is used for the second-, third-, and fourth-order terms. The proposed controller synthesis method is applied to the problem of satellite attitude control with attitude parameterization accomplished using the modified Rodrigues parameters and their associated shadow set. This leads to kinematical relations that are polynomial in the modified Rodrigues parameters and the angular velocity components. The proposed control method is compared with existing methods from the literature through numerical simulations. Disturbance rejection properties are compared by including the gravity-gradient and geomagnetic disturbance torques. Controller robustness is also compared by including unmodeled first- and second-order actuator dynamics, as well as actuation time delays in the simulation model. Moreover, the gap metric distance induced by the unmodeled actuator dynamics is calculated for the linearized system. The results indicated that a linear controller performs almost as well as those obtained using higher-order solutions for the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and the controller dynamics.

Condition Based Maintenance Optimization of an Aircraft Assembly Process Considering Multiple Objectives

The Commercial Aircraft Cooperation of China (COMAC) ARJ21 fuselage’s final assembly process is used as a case study. The focus of this paper is on the condition based maintenance regime for the (semi-) automatic assembly machines and how they impact the throughput of the fuselage assembly process. The fuselage assembly process is modeled and analyzed by using agent based simulation in this paper. The agent approach allows complex process interactions of assembly, equipment, and maintenance to be captured and empirically studied. In this paper, the built network is modeled as the sequence of activities in each stage, which are parameterized by activity lead time and equipment used. A scatter search is used to find multiobjective optimal solutions for the CBM regime, where the maintenance related cost and production rate are the optimization objectives. In this paper, in order to ease computation intensity caused by running multiple simulations during the optimization and to simplify a multiobjective formulation, multiple Min-Max weightings are used to trace Pareto front. The empirical analysis reviews the trade-offs between the production rate and maintenance cost and how sensitive the design solution is to the uncertainties.

Designing Stipulated Gains of Aircraft Stability and Control Augmentation Systems for Semiglobal Trajectories Tracking

The main objective of the current investigation is to provide a simple procedure to select the controller gains for an aircraft with a largely wide complex flight envelope with different source of nonlinearities. The stability and control gains are optimally devised using genetic algorithm. Thus, the gains are tuned based on the information of a single designed mission. This mission is assigned to cover a wide range of the aircraft’s flight envelope. For more validation, the resultant controller gains were tested for many off-designed missions and different operating conditions such as mass and aerodynamic variations. The results show the capability of the proposed procedure to design a semiglobal robust stability and control augmentation system for a highly maneuverable aircraft such as F-16. Unlike the gain scheduling and other control design methodologies, the proposed technique provides a semi-global single set of gains for both aircraft stability and control augmentation systems. This reduces the implementation efforts. The proposed methodology is superior to the classical control method which rigorously requires the linearization of the nonlinear aircraft model of the investigated highly maneuverable aircraft and eliminating the sources of nonlinearities mentioned above.

Approximate Solutions to Nonlinear Optimal Control Problems in Astrodynamics

A method to solve nonlinear optimal control problems is proposed in this work. The method implements an approximating sequence of time-varying linear quadratic regulators that converge to the solution of the original, nonlinear problem. Each subproblem is solved by manipulating the state transition matrix of the state-costate dynamics. Hard, soft, and mixed boundary conditions are handled. The presented method is a modified version of an algorithm known as “approximating sequence of Riccati equations.” Sample problems in astrodynamics are treated to show the effectiveness of the method, whose limitations are also discussed.

Noncrystalline Binder Based Composite Propellant

This study reports on propellants based on cross-linked HTPE binder plasticized with butyl nitroxyethylnitramine (BuNENA) as energetic material and HP 4000D as noncrystalline prepolymer. This binder was conducted with solid loading in the 85%. The results showed an improvement in processability, mechanical properties and burning rate. In addition, its propellant delivers (about 6 seconds) higher performance (specific impulse) than the best existing composite solid rocket propellant. Thermal analyses have performed by (DSC, TGA). The thermal curves have showed a low glass transition temperature () of propellant samples, and there was no sign of binder polymer crystallization at low temperatures (−50°C). Due to its high molecular weight and unsymmetrical or random molecule distributions, the polyether (HP 4000D) has been enhanced the mechanical properties of propellants binder polymer over a large range of temperatures [−50, 50°C]. The propellants described in this paper have presented high volumetric specific impulse (>500 s·gr·cc−1). These factors combined make BuNENA based composite propellant a potentially attractive alternative for a number of missions demanding composite solid propellants.

Nonlinear Control of a Satellite Electrical Power System Based on the Sliding Mode Control

The power electronic interface between a satellite electrical power system (EPS) with a photovoltaic main source and battery storage as the secondary power source is modelled based on the state space averaging method. Subsequently, sliding mode controller is designed for maximum power point tracking of the PV array and load voltage regulation. Asymptotic stability is ensured as well. Simulation of the EPS is accomplished using MATLAB. The results show that the outputs of the EPS have good tracking response, low overshoot, short settling time, and zero steady-state error. The proposed controller is robust to environment changes and load variations. Afterwards, passivity based controller is provided to compare the results with those of sliding mode controller responses. This comparison demonstrates that the proposed system has better transient response, and unlike passivity based controller, the proposed controller does not require reference PV current for control law synthesis.

Cooperative Object Manipulation by a Space Robot with Flexible Appendages

Modelling and control of rigid-flexible multibody systems is studied in this paper. As a specified application, a space robotic system with flexible appendages during a cooperative object manipulation task is considered. This robotic system necessitates delicate force exertion by several end-effectors to move an object along a desired path. During such maneuvers, flexible appendages like solar panels may get stimulated and vibrate. This vibrating motion will cause some oscillatory disturbing forces on the spacecraft, which in turn produces error in the motion of the end-effectors of the cooperative manipulating arms. In addition, vibration control of these flexible members to protect them from fracture is another challenging problem in an object manipulation task for the stated systems. Therefore, the multiple impedance control algorithm is extended to perform an object manipulation task by such complicated rigid-flexible multibody systems. This extension in the control algorithm considers the modification term which compensates the disturbing forces due to vibrating motion of flexible appendages. Finally, a space free-flying robotic system which contains two 2-DOF planar cooperative manipulators, appended with two highly flexible solar panels, is simulated. Obtained results reveal the merits of the developed model-based controller which will be discussed.