8,341 research outputs found
Eigenstructure Assignment Based Controllers Applied to Flexible Spacecraft
The objective of this paper is to evaluate the behaviour of a controller designed using a parametric Eigenstructure Assignment method and to evaluate its suitability for use in flexible spacecraft. The challenge of this objective lies in obtaining a suitable controller that is specifically designated to alleviate the deflections and vibrations suffered by external appendages in flexible spacecraft while performing attitude manoeuvres. One of the main problems in these vehicles is the mechanical cross-coupling that exists between the rigid and flexible parts of the spacecraft. Spacecraft with fine attitude pointing requirements need precise control of the mechanical coupling to avoid undesired attitude misalignment. In designing an attitude controller, it is necessary to consider the possible vibration of the solar panels and how it may influence the performance of the rest of the vehicle. The nonlinear mathematical model of a flexible spacecraft is considered a close approximation to the real system. During the process of controller evaluation, the design process has also been taken into account as a factor in assessing the robustness of the system
A model of brain morphological changes related to aging and Alzheimer's disease from cross-sectional assessments
In this study we propose a deformation-based framework to jointly model the
influence of aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on the brain morphological
evolution. Our approach combines a spatio-temporal description of both
processes into a generative model. A reference morphology is deformed along
specific trajectories to match subject specific morphologies. It is used to
define two imaging progression markers: 1) a morphological age and 2) a disease
score. These markers can be computed locally in any brain region. The approach
is evaluated on brain structural magnetic resonance images (MRI) from the ADNI
database. The generative model is first estimated on a control population,
then, for each subject, the markers are computed for each acquisition. The
longitudinal evolution of these markers is then studied in relation with the
clinical diagnosis of the subjects and used to generate possible morphological
evolution. In the model, the morphological changes associated with normal aging
are mainly found around the ventricles, while the Alzheimer's disease specific
changes are more located in the temporal lobe and the hippocampal area. The
statistical analysis of these markers highlights differences between clinical
conditions even though the inter-subject variability is quiet high. In this
context, the model can be used to generate plausible morphological trajectories
associated with the disease. Our method gives two interpretable scalar imaging
biomarkers assessing the effects of aging and disease on brain morphology at
the individual and population level. These markers confirm an acceleration of
apparent aging for Alzheimer's subjects and can help discriminate clinical
conditions even in prodromal stages. More generally, the joint modeling of
normal and pathological evolutions shows promising results to describe
age-related brain diseases over long time scales.Comment: NeuroImage, Elsevier, In pres
Progressive construction of a parametric reduced-order model for PDE-constrained optimization
An adaptive approach to using reduced-order models as surrogates in
PDE-constrained optimization is introduced that breaks the traditional
offline-online framework of model order reduction. A sequence of optimization
problems constrained by a given Reduced-Order Model (ROM) is defined with the
goal of converging to the solution of a given PDE-constrained optimization
problem. For each reduced optimization problem, the constraining ROM is trained
from sampling the High-Dimensional Model (HDM) at the solution of some of the
previous problems in the sequence. The reduced optimization problems are
equipped with a nonlinear trust-region based on a residual error indicator to
keep the optimization trajectory in a region of the parameter space where the
ROM is accurate. A technique for incorporating sensitivities into a
Reduced-Order Basis (ROB) is also presented, along with a methodology for
computing sensitivities of the reduced-order model that minimizes the distance
to the corresponding HDM sensitivity, in a suitable norm. The proposed reduced
optimization framework is applied to subsonic aerodynamic shape optimization
and shown to reduce the number of queries to the HDM by a factor of 4-5,
compared to the optimization problem solved using only the HDM, with errors in
the optimal solution far less than 0.1%
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