Eigenspace techniques for active flutter suppression

The use of eigenspace techniques for the design of an active flutter suppression system for a hypothetical research drone is discussed. One leading edge and two trailing edge aerodynamic control surfaces and four sensors (accelerometers) are available for each wing. Full state control laws are designed by selecting feedback gains which place closed loop eigenvalues and shape closed loop eigenvectors so as to stabilize wing flutter and reduce gust loads at the wing root while yielding accepatable robustness and satisfying constrains on rms control surface activity. These controllers are realized by state estimators designed using an eigenvalue placement/eigenvector shaping technique which results in recovery of the full state loop transfer characteristics. The resulting feedback compensators are shown to perform almost as well as the full state designs. They also exhibit acceptable performance in situations in which the failure of an actuator is simulated

Active flutter control for flexible vehicles, volume 1

An active flutter control methodology based on linear quadratic gaussian theory and its application to the control of a super critical wing is presented. Results of control surface and sensor position optimization are discussed. Both frequency response matching and residualization used to obtain practical flutter controllers are examined. The development of algorithms and computer programs for flutter modeling and active control design procedures is reported

Automatic Control and Fault Diagnosis of MEMS Lateral Comb Resonators

Recent advancements in microfabrication of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems have made MEMS an important part of many applications such as safety and sensor/control devices. Miniature structure of MEMS makes them very sensitive to the environmental and operating conditions. In addition, fault in the device might change the parameters and result in unwanted behavioral variations. Therefore, imperfect device structure, fault and operating point dependencies suggest for active control of MEMS.;This research is focused on two main areas of control and fault diagnosis of MEMS devices. In the control part, the application of adaptive controllers is introduced for trajectory control of the device under health and fault conditions. Fault in different forms in the structure of the device are modeled and foundry manufactured for experimental verifications. Pull-in voltage effect in the MEMS Lateral Comb Resonators are investigated and controlled by variable structure controllers. Reliability of operation is enhanced by active control of the device under fault conditions.;The second part of this research is focused on the fault diagnosis of the MEMS devices. Fault is introduced and investigated for better understanding of the system behavioral changes. Modeling of the device in different operating conditions suggests for the multiple-model adaptive estimation (MMAE) fault diagnosis technique. Application of Kalman filters in MMAE is investigated and the performance of the fault diagnosis is compared with other techniques such as self-tuning and auto self-tuning techniques. According to the varying parameters of the system, online parameter identification systems are required to monitor the parameter variations and model the system accurately. Self-tuning banks are applied and combined with MMAE to provide accurate fault diagnosis systems. Different parameter identification techniques result in different system performances. In this regard, this research investigates the application of Recursive Least Square with Forgetting Factor. Different techniques for tuning of forgetting factor value are introduced and their results are compared for better performance. The organization of this dissertation is as follows:;Chapter I introduces the structure of the MEMS Lateral Comb Resonator; Chapter II introduces the application of control techniques and displacement feedback approach. Chapter III investigates the control approach and experimental results. In chapter IV, a new controller is introduced and designed for the MEMS trajectory controls. Chapter V is about the fault and different techniques of fault diagnosis in MEMS LCRs. Chapter 6 is the future work suggested through the current results and observations. Each chapter contains a section to summarize the concluding remarks

NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1990, Volume 1

The 1990 Johnson Space Center (JSC) NASA/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston-University Park and JSC. A compilation of the final reports on the research projects are presented. The topics covered include: the Space Station; the Space Shuttle; exobiology; cell biology; culture techniques; control systems design; laser induced fluorescence; spacecraft reliability analysis; reduced gravity; biotechnology; microgravity applications; regenerative life support systems; imaging techniques; cardiovascular system; physiological effects; extravehicular mobility units; mathematical models; bioreactors; computerized simulation; microgravity simulation; and dynamic structural analysis

Lift Enhancement for Low-Aspect-Ratio Wings with Periodic Excitation

In an effort to enhance lift on low-aspect-ratio rectangular flat-plate wings in low-Reynolds-number post-stall flows, periodic injection of momentum is considered along the trailing edge in this numerical study. The purpose of actuation is not to reattach the flow but to change the dynamics of the wake vortices such that the resulting lift force is increased. Periodic forcing is observed to be effective in increasing lift for various aspect ratios and angles of attack, achieving a similar lift enhancement attained by steady forcing with less momentum input. Through the investigation on the influence of the actuation frequency, it is also found that there exists a frequency at which the flow locks on to a time-periodic high-lift state

Synchronous response modelling and control of an annular momentum control device

Research on the synchronous response modelling and control of an advanced Annular Momentun Control Device (AMCD) used to control the attitude of a spacecraft is described. For the flexible rotor AMCD, two sources of synchronous vibrations were identified. One source, which corresponds to the mass unbalance problem of rigid rotors suspended in conventional bearings, is caused by measurement errors of the rotor center of mass position. The other sources of synchronous vibrations is misalignment between the hub and flywheel masses of the AMCD. Four different control algorithms were examined. These were lead-lag compensators that mimic conventional bearing dynamics, tracking notch filters used in the feedback loop, tracking differential-notch filters, and model-based compensators. The tracking differential-notch filters were shown to have a number of advantages over more conventional approaches for both rigid-body rotor applications and flexible rotor applications such as the AMCD. Hardware implementation schemes for the tracking differential-notch filter were investigated. A simple design was developed that can be implemented with analog multipliers and low bandwidth, digital hardware

Non-Linear Robust Observers For Systems With Non-Collocated Sensors And Actuators

Challenges in controlling highly nonlinear systems are not limited to the development of sophisticated control algorithms that are tolerant to significant modeling imprecision and external disturbances. Additional challenges stem from the implementation of the control algorithm such as the availability of the state variables needed for the computation of the control signals, and the adverse effects induced by non-collocated sensors and actuators. The present work investigates the adverse effects of non-collocated sensors and actuators on the phase characteristics of flexible structures and the ensuing implications on the performance of structural controllers. Two closed-loop systems are considered and their phase angle contours have been generated as functions of the normalized sensor location and the excitation frequency. These contours were instrumental in the development of remedial actions for rendering structural controllers immune to the detrimental effects of non-collocated sensors and actuators. Moreover, the current work has focused on providing experimental validation for the robust performances of a self-tuning observer and a sliding mode observer. The observers are designed based on the variable structure systems theory and the self-tuning fuzzy logic scheme. Their robustness and self-tuning characteristics allow one to use an imprecise model of the system and eliminate the need for the extensive tuning associated with a fixed rule-based expert fuzzy inference system. The first phase of the experimental work was conducted in a controlled environment on a flexible spherical robotic manipulator whose natural frequencies are configuration-dependent. Both controllers have yielded accurate estimates of the required state variables in spite of significant modeling imprecision. The observers were also tested under a completely uncontrolled environment, which involves a 16-ft boat operating in open-water under different sea states. Such an experimental work necessitates the development of a supervisory control algorithm to perform PTP tasks, prescribed throttle arm and steering tasks, surge speed and heading tracking tasks, or recovery maneuvers. This system has been implemented herein to perform prescribed throttle arm and steering control tasks based on estimated rather than measured state variables. These experiments served to validate the observers in a completely uncontrolled environment and proved their viability as reliable techniques for providing accurate estimates for the required state variables

Low-authority control synthesis for large space structures

The control of vibrations of large space structures by distributed sensors and actuators is studied. A procedure is developed for calculating the feedback loop gains required to achieve specified amounts of damping. For moderate damping (Low Authority Control) the procedure is purely algebraic, but it can be applied iteratively when larger amounts of damping are required and is generalized for arbitrary time invariant systems