Construction of periodic adapted orthonormal frames on closed space curves

The construction of continuous adapted orthonormal frames along C1 closed–loop spatial curves is addressed. Such frames are important in the design of periodic spatial rigid–body motions along smooth closed paths. The construction is illustrated through the simplest non–trivial context — namely, C1 closed loops defined by a single Pythagorean–hodograph (PH) quintic space curve of a prescribed total arc length. It is shown that such curves comprise a two–parameter family, dependent on two angular variables, and they degenerate to planar curves when these parameters differ by an integer multiple of π. The desired frame is constructed through a rotation applied to the normal–plane vectors of the Euler–Rodrigues frame, so as to interpolate a given initial/final frame orientation. A general solution for periodic adapted frames of minimal twist on C1 closed–loop PH curves is possible, although this incurs transcendental terms. However, the C1 closed–loop PH quintics admit particularly simple rational periodic adapted frames

Movimientos simétrico lineales esféricos segmentados para interpolación de orientaciones en planificación de trayectorias de herramienta en CNC de 5 Ejes

RESUMEN: Este artículo emplea biarcos cuaterniónicos para interpolar un conjunto de orientaciones con restricciones de velocidad angular. La curva cuaterniónica resultante representa un movimiento simétrico lineal esférico segmentado con continuidad C1 . El propósito de este esfuerzo es poner en uso los movimientos simétrico lineales desde el punto de vista de aproximación e interpolación de movimiento y presentar su potencial aplicación en la simulación de mecanizado por Control Numérico Computarizado (CNC) y planeación de trayectorias de herramienta. Los biarcos cuaterniónicos pueden ser usados para aproximar curvas B-spline cuaterniónicas que representan movimientos esféricos racionales, los cuales tienen aplicaciones en planeación de trayectorias de robots, en CAD/CAM y en gráficas por computador.ABSTRACT: This paper employs quaternion biarcs to interpolate a set of orientations with angular velocity constraints. The resulting quaternion curve represents a piecewise line-symmetric spherical motion with C1 continuity. The purpose of this effort is to put line-symmetric motions into use from the viewpoint of motion approximation and interpolation, and to present their potential applications in Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) machining simulation and tool path planning. Quaternion biarcs may be used to approximate B-spline quaternion curves that represent rational spherical motions that have applications in robot path planning, CAD/CAM and computer graphics

C¹ and G¹ continuous rational motions using a conformal geometric algebra

Traditional rational motion design describes separately the translation of a reference point in a body and the rotation of the body about it. This means that there is dependence upon the choice of reference point. When considering the derivative of a motion, some approaches require the transform to be unitary. This paper resolves these issues by establishing means for constructing free-form motions from specified control poses using multiplicative and additive approaches. It also establishes the derivative of a motion in the more general non-unitary case. This leads to a characterization of the motion at the end of a motion segment in terms of the end pose and the linear and angular velocity and this, in turn, leads to the ability to join motion segments together with either C1- or G1-continuity.</p

Comparisons of several aerodynamic methods for application to dynamic loads analyses

The results of a study are presented in which the applicability at subsonic speeds of several aerodynamic methods for predicting dynamic gust loads on aircraft, including active control systems, was examined and compared. These aerodynamic methods varied from steady state to an advanced unsteady aerodynamic formulation. Brief descriptions of the structural and aerodynamic representations and of the motion and load equations are presented. Comparisons of numerical results achieved using the various aerodynamic methods are shown in detail. From these results, aerodynamic representations for dynamic gust analyses are identified. It was concluded that several aerodynamic methods are satisfactory for dynamic gust analyses of configurations having either controls fixed or active control systems that primarily affect the low frequency rigid body aircraft response

Design of a new high-performance pointing controller for the Hubble Space Telescope

A new form of high-performance, disturbance-adaptive pointing controller for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is proposed. This new controller is all linear (constant gains) and can maintain accurate 'pointing' of the HST in the face of persistent randomly triggered uncertain, unmeasurable 'flapping' motions of the large attached solar array panels. Similar disturbances associated with antennas and other flexible appendages can also be accommodated. The effectiveness and practicality of the proposed new controller is demonstrated by a detailed design and simulation testing of one such controller for a planar-motion, fully nonlinear model of HST. The simulation results show a high degree of disturbance isolation and pointing stability

Collision-free path planning for robots using B-splines and simulated annealing

This thesis describes a technique to obtain an optimal collision-free path for an automated guided vehicle (AGV) and/or robot in two and three dimensions by synthesizing a B-spline curve under geometric and intrinsic constraints. The problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem and solved by using simulated annealing. A two-link planar manipulator is included to show that the B-spline curve can also be synthesized by adding kinematic characteristics of the robot. A cost function, which includes obstacle proximity, excessive arc length, uneven parametric distribution and, possibly, link proximity costs, is developed for the simulated annealing algorithm. Three possible cases for the orientation of the moving object are explored: (a) fixed orientation, (b) orientation as another independent variable, and (c) orientation given by the slope of the curve. To demonstrate the robustness of the technique, several examples are presented. Objects are modeled as ellipsoid type shapes. The procedure to obtain the describing parameters of the ellipsoid is also presented