28,731 research outputs found
Cluster-based feedback control of turbulent post-stall separated flows
We propose a novel model-free self-learning cluster-based control strategy
for general nonlinear feedback flow control technique, benchmarked for
high-fidelity simulations of post-stall separated flows over an airfoil. The
present approach partitions the flow trajectories (force measurements) into
clusters, which correspond to characteristic coarse-grained phases in a
low-dimensional feature space. A feedback control law is then sought for each
cluster state through iterative evaluation and downhill simplex search to
minimize power consumption in flight. Unsupervised clustering of the flow
trajectories for in-situ learning and optimization of coarse-grained control
laws are implemented in an automated manner as key enablers. Re-routing the
flow trajectories, the optimized control laws shift the cluster populations to
the aerodynamically favorable states. Utilizing limited number of sensor
measurements for both clustering and optimization, these feedback laws were
determined in only iterations. The objective of the present work is not
necessarily to suppress flow separation but to minimize the desired cost
function to achieve enhanced aerodynamic performance. The present control
approach is applied to the control of two and three-dimensional separated flows
over a NACA 0012 airfoil with large-eddy simulations at an angle of attack of
, Reynolds number and free-stream Mach number . The optimized control laws effectively minimize the flight power
consumption enabling the flows to reach a low-drag state. The present work aims
to address the challenges associated with adaptive feedback control design for
turbulent separated flows at moderate Reynolds number.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figure
Supervised Autonomous Locomotion and Manipulation for Disaster Response with a Centaur-like Robot
Mobile manipulation tasks are one of the key challenges in the field of
search and rescue (SAR) robotics requiring robots with flexible locomotion and
manipulation abilities. Since the tasks are mostly unknown in advance, the
robot has to adapt to a wide variety of terrains and workspaces during a
mission. The centaur-like robot Centauro has a hybrid legged-wheeled base and
an anthropomorphic upper body to carry out complex tasks in environments too
dangerous for humans. Due to its high number of degrees of freedom, controlling
the robot with direct teleoperation approaches is challenging and exhausting.
Supervised autonomy approaches are promising to increase quality and speed of
control while keeping the flexibility to solve unknown tasks. We developed a
set of operator assistance functionalities with different levels of autonomy to
control the robot for challenging locomotion and manipulation tasks. The
integrated system was evaluated in disaster response scenarios and showed
promising performance.Comment: In Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent
Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, October 201
Design, Modeling, and Geometric Control on SE(3) of a Fully-Actuated Hexarotor for Aerial Interaction
In this work we present the optimization-based design and control of a
fully-actuated omnidirectional hexarotor. The tilt angles of the propellers are
designed by maximizing the control wrench applied by the propellers. This
maximizes (a) the agility of the UAV, (b) the maximum payload the UAV can hover
with at any orientation, and (c) the interaction wrench that the UAV can apply
to the environment in physical contact. It is shown that only axial tilting of
the propellers with respect to the UAV's body yields optimal results. Unlike
the conventional hexarotor, the proposed hexarotor can generate at least 1.9
times the maximum thrust of one rotor in any direction, in addition to the
higher control torque around the vehicle's upward axis. A geometric controller
on SE(3) is proposed for the trajectory tracking problem for the class of fully
actuated UAVs. The proposed controller avoids singularities and complexities
that arise when using local parametrizations, in addition to being invariant to
a change of inertial coordinate frame. The performance of the controller is
validated in simulation.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, ICRA201
Multi-rendezvous Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization with Beam P-ACO
The design of spacecraft trajectories for missions visiting multiple
celestial bodies is here framed as a multi-objective bilevel optimization
problem. A comparative study is performed to assess the performance of
different Beam Search algorithms at tackling the combinatorial problem of
finding the ideal sequence of bodies. Special focus is placed on the
development of a new hybridization between Beam Search and the Population-based
Ant Colony Optimization algorithm. An experimental evaluation shows all
algorithms achieving exceptional performance on a hard benchmark problem. It is
found that a properly tuned deterministic Beam Search always outperforms the
remaining variants. Beam P-ACO, however, demonstrates lower parameter
sensitivity, while offering superior worst-case performance. Being an anytime
algorithm, it is then found to be the preferable choice for certain practical
applications.Comment: Code available at https://github.com/lfsimoes/beam_paco__gtoc
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