9,812 research outputs found
A Homotopy-Based Method for Optimization of Hybrid High-Low Thrust Trajectories
Space missions require increasingly more efficient trajectories to provide payload transport and mission goals by means of lowest fuel consumption, a strategic mission design key-point. Recent works demonstrated that the combined (or hybrid) use of chemical and electrical propulsion can give important advantages in terms of fuel consumption, without losing the ability to reach other mission objectives: as an example the Hohmann Spiral Transfer, applied in the case of a transfer to GEO orbit, demonstrated a fuel mass saving between 5-10% of the spacecraft wet mass, whilst satisfying a pre-set boundary constraint for the time of flight. Nevertheless, methods specifically developed for optimizing space trajectories considering the use of hybrid high-low thrust propulsion systems have not been extensively developed, basically because of the intrinsic complexity in the solution of optimal problem equations with existent numerical methods. The study undertaken and presented in this paper develops a numerical strategy for the optimization of hybrid high-low thrust space trajectories. An indirect optimization method has been developed, which makes use of a homotopic approach for numerical convergence improvement. The adoption of a homotopic approach provides a relaxation to the optimal problem, transforming it into a simplest problem to solve in which the optimal problem presents smoother equations and the shooting function acquires an increased convergence radius: the original optimal problem is then reached through a homotopy parameter continuation. Moreover, the use of homotopy can make possible to include a high thrust impulse (treated as velocity discontinuity) to the low thrust optimal control obtained from the indirect method. The impulse magnitude, location and direction are obtained following from a numerical continuation in order to minimize the problem cost function. The initial study carried out in this paper is finally correlated with particular test cases, in order to validate the work developed and to start investigating in which cases the effectiveness of hybrid-thrust propulsion subsists
Mathematical control of complex systems
Copyright © 2013 ZidongWang et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
On Minimum-time Paths of Bounded Curvature with Position-dependent Constraints
We consider the problem of a particle traveling from an initial configuration
to a final configuration (given by a point in the plane along with a prescribed
velocity vector) in minimum time with non-homogeneous velocity and with
constraints on the minimum turning radius of the particle over multiple regions
of the state space. Necessary conditions for optimality of these paths are
derived to characterize the nature of optimal paths, both when the particle is
inside a region and when it crosses boundaries between neighboring regions.
These conditions are used to characterize families of optimal and nonoptimal
paths. Among the optimality conditions, we derive a "refraction" law at the
boundary of the regions that generalizes the so-called Snell's law of
refraction in optics to the case of paths with bounded curvature. Tools
employed to deduce our results include recent principles of optimality for
hybrid systems. The results are validated numerically.Comment: Expanded version of paper in Automatic
On the Hybrid Minimum Principle On Lie Groups and the Exponential Gradient HMP Algorithm
This paper provides a geometrical derivation of the Hybrid Minimum Principle
(HMP) for autonomous hybrid systems whose state manifolds constitute Lie groups
which are left invariant under the controlled dynamics of the
system, and whose switching manifolds are defined as smooth embedded time
invariant submanifolds of . The analysis is expressed in terms of extremal
(i.e. optimal) trajectories on the cotangent bundle of the state manifold .
The Hybrid Maximum Principle (HMP) algorithm introduced in \cite{Shaikh} is
extended to the so-called Exponential Gradient algorithm. The convergence
analysis for the algorithm is based upon the LaSalle Invariance Principle and
simulation results illustrate their efficacy
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