Filtering technique based on high-frequency plant modeling for high-gain control

This invention was an improvement in aircraft control systems that utilized feedback motion sensors to generate a signal to control the aircraft. The improvement consisted essentially of a complementary filter comprising a simplified model of the aircraft, a high pass filter, a low pass filter and a summing amplifier. The control signal was applied to the simplified model of the aircraft which attempted to compute the vehicle response to the signal. This computed response was then fed into the high pass filter to eliminate long term errors in the calculated response, with the result that a good estimate of the high frequency content of the aircraft motion was obtained. In order to obtain a good estimate of the low frequency content of the motion, a rate gyro signal was fed through the low pass filter that eliminates all of the offending noise

Control theory analysis of a three-axis VTOL flight director

A control theory analysis of a VTOL flight director and the results of a fixed-based simulator evaluation of the flight-director commands are discussed. The VTOL configuration selected for this study is a helicopter-type VTOL which controls the direction of the thrust vector by means of vehicle-attitude changes and, furthermore, employs high-gain attitude stabilization. This configuration is the same as one which was simulated in actual instrument flight tests with a variable stability helicopter. Stability analyses are made for each of the flight-director commands, assuming a single input-output, multi-loop system model for each control axis. The analyses proceed from the inner-loops to the outer-loops, using an analytical pilot model selected on the basis of the innermost-loop dynamics. The time response of the analytical model of the system is primarily used to adjust system gains, while root locus plots are used to identify dominant modes and mode interactions

Application of a modified complementary filtering technique for increased aircraft control system frequency bandwidth in high vibration environment

A modified complementary filtering technique for estimating aircraft roll rate was developed and flown in a research helicopter to determine whether higher gains could be achieved. Use of this technique did, in fact, permit a substantial increase in system frequency bandwidth because, in comparison with first-order filtering, it reduced both noise amplification and control limit-cycle tendencies

Flight investigation of a vertical-velocity command system for VTOL aircraft

A flight investigation was undertaken to assess the potential benefits afforded by a vertical-velocity command system (VVCS) for VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft. This augmentation system was conceived primarily as a means of lowering pilot workload during decelerating approaches to a hover and/or landing under category III instrument meteorological conditions. The scope of the investigation included a determination of acceptable system parameters, a visual flight evaluation, and an instrument flight evaluation which employed a 10 deg, decelerating, simulated instrument approach task. The results indicated that the VVCS, which decouples the pitch and vertical degrees of freedom, provides more accurate glide-path tracking and a lower pilot workload than does the unaugmented system

Flight investigation of manual and automatic VTOL decelerating instrument approaches and landings

A flight investigation was undertaken to study the problems associated with manual and automatic control of steep, decelerating instrument approaches and landings under simulated instrument conditions. The study was conducted with a research helicopter equipped with a three-cue flight-director indicator. The scope of the investigation included variations in the flight-director control laws, glide-path angle, deceleration profile, and control response characteristics. Investigation of the automatic-control problem resulted in the first automated approach and landing to a predetermined spot ever accomplished with a helicopter. Although well-controlled approaches and landings could be performed manually with the flight-director concept, pilot comments indicated the need for a better display which would more effectively integrate command and situation information

Pilot assessment of two computer-generated display formats for helicopter instrument approach

Two computer generated display formats were evaluated as primary displays by six research pilots in a fixed base simulator. One of the computer generated display formats was an electronic attitude director indicator (EADI) which featured three cue flight director, command information, superimposed on true perspective runway symbology. The other computer generated display format featured separate horizontal and vertical situation information with vector predictors. A baseline display, consisting of an electromechanical attitude director indicator (ADI) with a three cue flight director and a moving map, was used as a reference for the pilot evaluations

A Record of Antarctic Climate and Ice Sheet History Recovered

Antarctica’s late Cenozoic (the past ~15 million years) climate history is poorly known from direct evidence, owing to its remoteness, an extensive sea ice apron, and an ice sheet cover over the region for the past 34 million years. Consequently, knowledge about the role of Antarctica’s ice sheets in global sea level and climate has relied heavily upon interpretations of oxygen isotope records from deep-sea cores. Whereas these isotopic records have revolutionized our understanding of climate-ice-ocean interactions, questions still remain about the specific role of Antarctic ice sheets in global climate. Such questions can be addressed from geological records at the marine margin of the ice sheets, recovered by drilling from floating ice platforms [e.g., Davey et al., 2001; Harwood et al., 2006; Barrett, 2007]. During the austral summer of 2006–2007, a new Antarctic geological drilling program (ANDRILL) successfully recovered a 1285- meter-long record of climate and ice sheet variability spanning the past 13 million years from beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf (Figure 1). The cores contain sedimentary rocks deposited by the ice sheets grounded in the sea, and they provide the best direct evidence to date of past Antarctic ice sheet and climate fluctuations for this period of Earth’s history. The new geological evidence is being used to provide direct physical calibrationfor deep-sea isotope records, low-latitude continental margin sea level records, and numerical climate and ice sheet models, especially for times of past global warmth. Such analogs are becoming increasingly important because of the difficulties in predicting the dynamic response of ice sheets to global warming [Vaughan and Athern, 2007]. In this article we summarize the initial results of the ANDRILL program’s first drilling project from the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) site [Naish et al., 2007a, 2007b], with an emphasis on the potential of the record for improving our knowledge of Antarctica’s influence on, and response to, global climate change

Development and internal validation of a prediction tool to aid the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome in dogs attending primary-care practice.

Novel methods to aid identification of dogs with spontaneous Cushing's syndrome are warranted to optimize case selection for diagnostics, avoid unnecessary testing, and ultimately aid decision-making for veterinarians. To develop and internally validate a prediction tool for dogs receiving a diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome using primary-care electronic health records. Three hundred and ninety-eight dogs diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome and 541 noncase dogs, tested for but not diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome, from a cohort of 905 544 dogs attending VetCompass participating practices. A cross-sectional study design was performed. A prediction model was developed using multivariable binary logistic regression taking the demography, presenting clinical signs and some routine laboratory results into consideration. Predictive performance of each model was assessed and internally validated through bootstrap resampling. A novel clinical prediction tool was developed from the final model. The final model included predictor variables sex, age, breed, polydipsia, vomiting, potbelly/hepatomegaly, alopecia, pruritus, alkaline phosphatase, and urine specific gravity. The model demonstrated good discrimination (area under the receiver operating curve [AUROC] = 0.78 [95% CI = 0.75-0.81]; optimism-adjusted AUROC = 0.76) and calibration (C-slope = 0.86). A tool was developed from the model which calculates the predicted likelihood of a dog having Cushing's syndrome from 0% (score = -13) to 96% (score = 10). A tool to predict a diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome at the point of first suspicion in dogs was developed, with good predictive performance. This tool can be used in practice to support decision-making and increase confidence in diagnosis. [Abstract copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.