Guidance Law and Neural Control for Hypersonic Missile to Track Targets

Hypersonic technology plays an important role in prompt global strike. Because the flight dynamics of a hypersonic vehicle is nonlinear, uncertain, and highly coupled, the controller design is challenging, especially to design its guidance and control law during the attack of a maneuvering target. In this paper, the sliding mode control (SMC) method is used to develop the guidance law from which the desired flight path angle is derived. With the desired information as control command, the adaptive neural control in discrete time is investigated ingeniously for the longitudinal dynamics of the hypersonic missile. The proposed guidance and control laws are validated by simulation of a hypersonic missile against a maneuvering target. It is demonstrated that the scheme has good robustness and high accuracy to attack a maneuvering target in the presence of external disturbance and missile model uncertainty

Robust multi-fidelity design of a micro re-entry unmanned space vehicle

This article addresses the preliminary robust design of a small-scale re-entry unmanned space vehicle by means of a hybrid optimization technique. The approach, developed in this article, closely couples an evolutionary multi-objective algorithm with a direct transcription method for optimal control problems. The evolutionary part handles the shape parameters of the vehicle and the uncertain objective functions, while the direct transcription method generates an optimal control profile for the re-entry trajectory. Uncertainties on the aerodynamic forces and characteristics of the thermal protection material are incorporated into the vehicle model, and a Monte-Carlo sampling procedure is used to compute relevant statistical characteristics of the maximum heat flux and internal temperature. Then, the hybrid algorithm searches for geometries that minimize the mean value of the maximum heat flux, the mean value of the maximum internal temperature, and the weighted sum of their variance: the evolutionary part handles the shape parameters of the vehicle and the uncertain functions, while the direct transcription method generates the optimal control profile for the re-entry trajectory of each individual of the population. During the optimization process, artificial neural networks are utilized to approximate the aerodynamic forces required by the optimal control solver. The artificial neural networks are trained and updated by means of a multi-fidelity approach: initially a low-fidelity analytical model, fitted on a waverider type of vehicle, is used to train the neural networks, and through the evolution a mix of analytical and computational fluid dynamic, high-fidelity computations are used to update it. The data obtained by the high-fidelity model progressively become the main source of updates for the neural networks till, near the end of the optimization process, the influence of the data obtained by the analytical model is practically nullified. On the basis of preliminary results, the adopted technique is able to predict achievable performance of the small spacecraft and the requirements in terms of thermal protection materials

Multidisciplinary design of a micro-USV for re-entry operations

Unmanned Space Vehicles (USV) are seen as a test-bed for enabling technologies and as a carrier to deliver and return experiments to and from low-Earth orbit. USV's are a potentially interesting solution also for the exploration of other planets or as long-range recognisance vehicles. As test bed, USV's are seen as a stepping stone for the development of future generation re-usable launchers but also as way to test key technologies for re-entry operations. Examples of recent developments are the PRORA-USV, designed by the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) in collaboration with Gavazzi Space, or the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), that is foreseen as an alternative to the space shuttle to deliver experiments into Earth orbit. Among the technologies to be demonstrated with the X-37 are improved thermal protection systems, avionics, the autonomous guidance system, and an advanced airfram

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 286)

This bibliography lists 845 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Dec. 1992. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1991 phase 1 projects

The objectives of 301 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1991 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 301, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1991 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included

Organization Learning Oriented Approach with Application to Discrete Flight Control

In nature and society, there exist many learning modes; thus, in this paper the goal is to incorporate features from the social organizations to improve the learning of intelligent systems. Inspired by future prediction, in the high level, the discrete dynamics is further written into the equivalent prediction model which can provide the bridge from now to the future. In the low level, the efficiency could be improved in way of group learning. The philosophy is integrated into discrete neural flight control where the cascade dynamics is written into the prediction form and the minimal-learning-parameter technique is designed for parameter learning. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified with simulation

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 277)

This bibliography lists 467 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Mar. 1992. Subject coverage includes: the engineering and theoretical aspects of design, construction, evaluation, testing, operation, and performance of aircraft (including aircraft engines); and associated aircraft components, equipment, and systems. It also includes research and development in ground support systems, theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics, and general fluid dynamics

Small business innovation research. Abstracts of 1988 phase 1 awards

Non-proprietary proposal abstracts of Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects supported by NASA are presented. Projects in the fields of aeronautical propulsion, aerodynamics, acoustics, aircraft systems, materials and structures, teleoperators and robots, computer sciences, information systems, data processing, spacecraft propulsion, bioastronautics, satellite communication, and space processing are covered

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 295)

This bibliography lists 581 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System in Sep. 1993. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 278)

This bibliography lists 414 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in April 1992