Large-angle slewing maneuvers for flexible spacecraft

A new class of closed-form solutions for finite-time linear-quadratic optimal control problems is presented. The solutions involve Potter's solution for the differential matrix Riccati equation, which assumes the form of a steady-state plus transient term. Illustrative examples are presented which show that the new solutions are more computationally efficient than alternative solutions based on the state transition matrix. As an application of the closed-form solutions, the neighboring extremal path problem is presented for a spacecraft retargeting maneuver where a perturbed plant with off-nominal boundary conditions now follows a neighboring optimal trajectory. The perturbation feedback approach is further applied to three-dimensional slewing maneuvers of large flexible spacecraft. For this problem, the nominal solution is the optimal three-dimensional rigid body slew. The perturbation feedback then limits the deviations from this nominal solution due to the flexible body effects. The use of frequency shaping in both the nominal and perturbation feedback formulations reduces the excitation of high-frequency unmodeled modes. A modified Kalman filter is presented for estimating the plant states

Transform methods for precision continuum and control models of flexible space structures

An open loop optimal control algorithm is developed for general flexible structures, based on Laplace transform methods. A distributed parameter model of the structure is first presented, followed by a derivation of the optimal control algorithm. The control inputs are expressed in terms of their Fourier series expansions, so that a numerical solution can be easily obtained. The algorithm deals directly with the transcendental transfer functions from control inputs to outputs of interest, and structural deformation penalties, as well as penalties on control effort, are included in the formulation. The algorithm is applied to several structures of increasing complexity to show its generality

An order (n) algorithm for the dynamics simulation of robotic systems

The formulation of an Order (n) algorithm for DISCOS (Dynamics Interaction Simulation of Controls and Structures), which is an industry-standard software package for simulation and analysis of flexible multibody systems is presented. For systems involving many bodies, the new Order (n) version of DISCOS is much faster than the current version. Results of the experimental validation of the dynamics software are also presented. The experiment is carried out on a seven-joint robot arm at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The algorithm used in the current version of DISCOS requires the inverse of a matrix whose dimension is equal to the number of constraints in the system. Generally, the number of constraints in a system is roughly proportional to the number of bodies in the system, and matrix inversion requires O(p exp 3) operations, where p is the dimension of the matrix. The current version of DISCOS is therefore considered an Order (n exp 3) algorithm. In contrast, the Order (n) algorithm requires inversion of matrices which are small, and the number of matrices to be inverted increases only linearly with the number of bodies. The newly-developed Order (n) DISCOS is currently capable of handling chain and tree topologies as well as multiple closed loops. Continuing development will extend the capability of the software to deal with typical robotics applications such as put-and-place, multi-arm hand-off and surface sliding

Breakdown of the lattice polaron picture in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 single crystals

When heated through the magnetic transition at Tc, La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 changes from a band metal to a polaronic insulator. The Hall constant R_H, through its activated behavior and sign anomaly, provides key evidence for polaronic behavior. We use R_H and the Hall mobility to demonstrate the breakdown of the polaron phase. Above 1.4Tc, the polaron picture holds in detail, while below, the activation energies of both R_H and the mobility deviate strongly from their polaronic values. These changes reflect the presence of metallic, ferromagnetic fluctuations, in the volume of which the Hall effect develops additional contributions tied to quantal phases.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B Rapi

Computational methods for Bayesian model choice

In this note, we shortly survey some recent approaches on the approximation of the Bayes factor used in Bayesian hypothesis testing and in Bayesian model choice. In particular, we reassess importance sampling, harmonic mean sampling, and nested sampling from a unified perspective.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the proceedings of MaxEnt 2009, July 05-10, 2009, to be published by the American Institute of Physic

Control and structural optimization for maneuvering large spacecraft

Presented here are the results of an advanced control design as well as a discussion of the requirements for automating both the structures and control design efforts for maneuvering a large spacecraft. The advanced control application addresses a general three dimensional slewing problem, and is applied to a large geostationary platform. The platform consists of two flexible antennas attached to the ends of a flexible truss. The control strategy involves an open-loop rigid body control profile which is derived from a nonlinear optimal control problem and provides the main control effort. A perturbation feedback control reduces the response due to the flexibility of the structure. Results are shown which demonstrate the usefulness of the approach. Software issues are considered for developing an integrated structures and control design environment

High Quality, Transferable Graphene Grown on Single Crystal Cu(111) Thin Films on Basal-Plane Sapphire

The current method of growing large-area graphene on Cu surfaces (polycrystalline foils and thin films) and its transfer to arbitrary substrates is technologically attractive. However, the quality of graphene can be improved significantly by growing it on single-crystal Cu surfaces. Here we show that high quality, large-area graphene can be grown on epitaxial single-crystal Cu(111) thin films on reusable basal-plane sapphire (alpha-Al2O3(0001)) substrates and then transferred to another substrate. While enabling graphene growth on Cu single-crystal surfaces, this method has the potential to avoid the high cost and extensive damage to graphene associated with sacrificing bulk single-crystal Cu during graphene transfer.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Quark energy loss and shadowing in nuclear Drell-Yan process

The energy loss effect in nuclear matter is another nuclear effect apart from the nuclear effects on the parton distribution as in deep inelastic scattering process. The quark energy loss can be measured best by the nuclear dependence of the high energy nuclear Drell-Yan process. By means of three kinds of quark energy loss parameterizations given in literature and the nuclear parton distribution extracted only with lepton-nucleus deep inelastic scattering experimental data, measured Drell-Yan production cross sections are analyzed for 800GeV proton incident on a variety of nuclear targets from FNAL E866. It is shown that our results with considering the energy loss effect are much different from these of the FNAL E866 who analysis the experimental data with the nuclear parton distribution functions obtained by using the deep inelastic lA collisions and pA nuclear Drell-Yan data . Considering the existence of energy loss effect in Drell-Yan lepton pairs production,we suggest that the extraction of nuclear parton distribution functions should not include Drell-Yan experimental data.Comment: 12 page

Dynamical Creation of Fractionalized Vortices and Vortex Lattices

We investigate dynamic creation of fractionalized half-quantum vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium atoms. Our simulations show that both individual half-quantum vortices and vortex lattices can be created in rotating optical traps when additional pulsed magnetic trapping potentials are applied. We also find that a distinct periodically modulated spin-density-wave spatial structure is always embedded in square half-quantum vortex lattices; this structure can be conveniently probed by taking absorption images of ballistically expanding cold atoms in a Stern-Gerlach field.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; published versio