Multivariable control of VTOL aircraft for shipboard landing

Bibliography: p. 18-19."Research supported by NASA Ames and Langley Research Centers under grant NASA/NAG 2-297."Marc Bodson and Michael Athans

Automatic Flight Control Systems

The history of flight control is inseparably linked to the history of aviation itself. Since the early days, the concept of automatic flight control systems has evolved from mechanical control systems to highly advanced automatic fly-by-wire flight control systems which can be found nowadays in military jets and civil airliners. Even today, many research efforts are made for the further development of these flight control systems in various aspects. Recent new developments in this field focus on a wealth of different aspects. This book focuses on a selection of key research areas, such as inertial navigation, control of unmanned aircraft and helicopters, trajectory control of an unmanned space re-entry vehicle, aeroservoelastic control, adaptive flight control, and fault tolerant flight control. This book consists of two major sections. The first section focuses on a literature review and some recent theoretical developments in flight control systems. The second section discusses some concepts of adaptive and fault-tolerant flight control systems. Each technique discussed in this book is illustrated by a relevant example

Control optimization, stabilization and computer algorithms for aircraft applications

The analysis and design of complex multivariable reliable control systems are considered. High performance and fault tolerant aircraft systems are the objectives. A preliminary feasibility study of the design of a lateral control system for a VTOL aircraft that is to land on a DD963 class destroyer under high sea state conditions is provided. Progress in the following areas is summarized: (1) VTOL control system design studies; (2) robust multivariable control system synthesis; (3) adaptive control systems; (4) failure detection algorithms; and (5) fault tolerant optimal control theory

Aeronautical Engineering: A Continuing Bibliography with Indexes (supplement 194)

This bibliography lists 369 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in November 1985

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 190

This bibliography lists 510 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in July 1985

Bio-inspired Landing Approaches and Their Potential Use On Extraterrestrial Bodies

International audienceAutomatic landing on extraterrestrial bodies is still a challenging and hazardous task. Here we propose a new type of autopilot designed to solve landing problems, which is based on neurophysiological, behavioral, and biorobotic findings on flying insects. Flying insects excel in optic flow sensing techniques and cope with highly parallel data at a low energy and computational cost using lightweight dedicated motion processing circuits. In the first part of this paper, we present our biomimetic approach in the context of a lunar landing scenario, assuming a 2-degree-of-freedom spacecraft approaching the moon, which is simulated with the PANGU software. The autopilot we propose relies only on optic flow (OF) and inertial measurements, and aims at regulating the OF generated during the landing approach, by means of a feedback control system whose sensor is an OF sensor. We put forward an estimation method based on a two-sensor setup to accurately estimate the orientation of the lander's velocity vector, which is mandatory to control the lander's pitch in a near optimal way with respect to the fuel consumption. In the second part, we present a lightweight Visual Motion Sensor (VMS) which draws on the results of neurophysiological studies on the insect visual system. The VMS was able to perform local 1-D angular speed measurements in the range 1.5°/s - 25°/s. The sensor was mounted on an 80 kg unmanned helicopter and test-flown outdoors over various fields. The OF measured onboard was shown to match the ground-truth optic flow despite the dramatic disturbances and vibrations experienced by the sensor

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 272)

This bibliography lists 719 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in November, 1991. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Nonlinear and adaptive control

The primary thrust of the research was to conduct fundamental research in the theories and methodologies for designing complex high-performance multivariable feedback control systems; and to conduct feasibiltiy studies in application areas of interest to NASA sponsors that point out advantages and shortcomings of available control system design methodologies