Eigenstructure Assignment Based Controllers Applied to Flexible Spacecraft

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the behaviour of a controller designed using a parametric Eigenstructure Assignment method and to evaluate its suitability for use in flexible spacecraft. The challenge of this objective lies in obtaining a suitable controller that is specifically designated to alleviate the deflections and vibrations suffered by external appendages in flexible spacecraft while performing attitude manoeuvres. One of the main problems in these vehicles is the mechanical cross-coupling that exists between the rigid and flexible parts of the spacecraft. Spacecraft with fine attitude pointing requirements need precise control of the mechanical coupling to avoid undesired attitude misalignment. In designing an attitude controller, it is necessary to consider the possible vibration of the solar panels and how it may influence the performance of the rest of the vehicle. The nonlinear mathematical model of a flexible spacecraft is considered a close approximation to the real system. During the process of controller evaluation, the design process has also been taken into account as a factor in assessing the robustness of the system

Nonlinear alternating current responses of graded materials

When a composite of nonlinear particles suspended in a host medium is subjected to a sinusoidal electric field, the electrical response in the composite will generally consist of alternating current (AC) fields at frequencies of higher-order harmonics. The situation becomes more interesting when the suspended particles are graded, with a spatial variation in the dielectric properties. The local electric field inside the graded particles can be calculated by the differential effective dipole approximation, which agrees very well with a first-principles approach. In this work, a nonlinear differential effective dipole approximation and a perturbation expansion method have been employed to investigate the effect of gradation on the nonlinear AC responses of these composites. The results showed that the fundamental and third-harmonic AC responses are sensitive to the dielectric-constant and/or nonlinear-susceptibility gradation profiles within the particles. Thus, by measuring the AC responses of the graded composites, it is possible to perform a real-time monitoring of the fabrication process of the gradation profiles within the graded particles.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Multipole polarizability of a graded spherical particle

We have studied the multipole polarizability of a graded spherical particle in a nonuniform electric field, in which the conductivity can vary radially inside the particle. The main objective of this work is to access the effects of multipole interactions at small interparticle separations, which can be important in non-dilute suspensions of functionally graded materials. The nonuniform electric field arises either from that applied on the particle or from the local field of all other particles. We developed a differential effective multipole moment approximation (DEMMA) to compute the multipole moment of a graded spherical particle in a nonuniform external field. Moreover, we compare the DEMMA results with the exact results of the power-law graded profile and the agreement is excellent. The extension to anisotropic DEMMA will be studied in an Appendix.Comment: LaTeX format, 2 eps figures, submitted for publication

Neutrino masses, leptogenesis and dark matter in hybrid seesaw

We suggest a hybrid seesaw model where relatively ``light''right-handed neutrinos give no contribution to the neutrino mass matrix due to a special symmetry. This allows their Yukawa couplings to the standard model particles to be relatively strong, so that the standard model Higgs boson can decay dominantly to a left and a right-handed neutrino, leaving another stable right-handed neutrino as cold dark matter. In our model neutrino masses arise via the type-II seesaw mechanism, the Higgs triplet scalars being also responsible for the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry via the leptogenesis mechanism.Comment: 4 page

A spatio-temporal entropy-based approach for the analysis of cyber attacks (demo paper)

Computer networks are ubiquitous systems growing exponentially with a predicted 50 billion devices connected by 2050. This dramatically increases the potential attack surface of Internet networks. A key issue in cyber defense is to detect, categorize and identify these attacks, the way they are propagated and their potential impacts on the systems affected. The research presented in this paper models cyber attacks at large by considering the Internet as a complex system in which attacks are propagated over a network. We model an attack as a path from a source to a target, and where each attack is categorized according to its intention. We setup an experimental testbed with the concept of honeypot that evaluates the spatiotemporal distribution of these Internet attacks. The preliminary results show a series of patterns in space and time that illustrate the potential of the approach, and how cyber attacks can be categorized according to the concept and measure of entropy