Control law parameterization for an aeroelastic wind-tunnel model equipped with an active roll control system and comparison with experiment

Nominal roll control laws were designed, implemented, and tested on an aeroelastically-scaled free-to-roll wind-tunnel model of an advanced fighter configuration. The tests were performed in the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. A parametric study of the nominal roll control system was conducted. This parametric study determined possible control system gain variations which yielded identical closed-loop stability (roll mode pole location) and identical roll response but different maximum control-surface deflections. Comparison of analytical predictions with wind-tunnel results was generally very good

Concept, modeling, and performance prediction of a low-cost, large deformable mirror

While it is attractive to integrate a deformable mirror (DM) for adaptive optics (AO) into the telescope itself rather than using relay optics within an instrument, the resulting large DM can be expensive, particularly for extremely large telescopes. A low-cost approach for building a large DM is to use voice-coil actuators connected to the back of the DM through suction cups. Use of such inexpensive voice-coil actuators leads to a poorly damped system with many structural modes within the desired bandwidth. Control of the mirror dynamics using electro-mechanical sensors is thus required for integration within an AO system. We introduce a distributed control approach, and we show that the “inner” back sensor control loop does not need to function at low frequencies, leading to significant cost reduction for the sensors. Incorporating realistic models of low-cost actuators and sensors together with an atmospheric seeing model, we demonstrate that the low-cost mirror strategy is feasible within a closed-loop AO system

SDECAY: a Fortran code for the decays of the supersymmetric particles in the MSSM

We present the Fortran code SDECAY, which calculates the decay widths and branching ratios of all the supersymmetric particles in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, including higher order effects. Besides the usual two-body decays of fermions and gauginos and the three-body decays of charginos, neutralinos and gluinos, we have also implemented the three-body decays of top squarks, and even the four-body decays of the top squark; the important loop-induced decay modes are also included. The QCD corrections to the two-body decays involving strongly interacting particles and the dominant components of the electroweak corrections to all decay modes are implemented.Comment: 42 page

Feedback methods for inverse simulation of dynamic models for engineering systems applications

Inverse simulation is a form of inverse modelling in which computer simulation methods are used to find the time histories of input variables that, for a given model, match a set of required output responses. Conventional inverse simulation methods for dynamic models are computationally intensive and can present difficulties for high-speed applications. This paper includes a review of established methods of inverse simulation,giving some emphasis to iterative techniques that were first developed for aeronautical applications. It goes on to discuss the application of a different approach which is based on feedback principles. This feedback method is suitable for a wide range of linear and nonlinear dynamic models and involves two distinct stages. The first stage involves design of a feedback loop around the given simulation model and, in the second stage, that closed-loop system is used for inversion of the model. Issues of robustness within closed-loop systems used in inverse simulation are not significant as there are no plant uncertainties or external disturbances. Thus the process is simpler than that required for the development of a control system of equivalent complexity. Engineering applications of this feedback approach to inverse simulation are described through case studies that put particular emphasis on nonlinear and multi-input multi-output models

Model-based Aeroservoelastic Design and Load Alleviation of Large Wind Turbine Blades

This paper presents an aeroservoelastic modeling approach for dynamic load alleviation in large wind turbines with trailing-edge aerodynamic surfaces. The tower, potentially on a moving base, and the rotating blades are modeled using geometrically non-linear composite beams, which are linearized around reference conditions with arbitrarily-large structural displacements. Time-domain aerodynamics are given by a linearized 3-D unsteady vortexlattice method and the resulting dynamic aeroelastic model is written in a state-space formulation suitable for model reductions and control synthesis. A linear model of a single blade is used to design a Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian regulator on its root-bending moments, which is finally shown to provide load reductions of about 20% in closed-loop on the full wind turbine non-linear aeroelastic model

Code diversity in multiple antenna wireless communication

The standard approach to the design of individual space-time codes is based on optimizing diversity and coding gains. This geometric approach leads to remarkable examples, such as perfect space-time block codes, for which the complexity of Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoding is considerable. Code diversity is an alternative and complementary approach where a small number of feedback bits are used to select from a family of space-time codes. Different codes lead to different induced channels at the receiver, where Channel State Information (CSI) is used to instruct the transmitter how to choose the code. This method of feedback provides gains associated with beamforming while minimizing the number of feedback bits. It complements the standard approach to code design by taking advantage of different (possibly equivalent) realizations of a particular code design. Feedback can be combined with sub-optimal low complexity decoding of the component codes to match ML decoding performance of any individual code in the family. It can also be combined with ML decoding of the component codes to improve performance beyond ML decoding performance of any individual code. One method of implementing code diversity is the use of feedback to adapt the phase of a transmitted signal as shown for 4 by 4 Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Code (QOSTBC) and multi-user detection using the Alamouti code. Code diversity implemented by selecting from equivalent variants is used to improve ML decoding performance of the Golden code. This paper introduces a family of full rate circulant codes which can be linearly decoded by fourier decomposition of circulant matrices within the code diversity framework. A 3 by 3 circulant code is shown to outperform the Alamouti code at the same transmission rate.Comment: 9 page

Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants