A rotational arm connection point design for a C-130 aircraft standardized sensor platform

West Virginia University\u27s Center for Industrial Research Applications (CIRA) was sponsored by the United States Army National Guard (USANG) and the Department of Defense (DOD) to design a standardized, articulating sensor platform for the C-130 Hercules military aircraft. This sensor platform was to be capable of in-flight deployment and capable of facilitating a diverse spectrum of sensor configurations in order to aid in surveillance and reconnaissance for counter narco-terrorism efforts. Two complete sensor pallet prototypes have been developed. The current platform configuration consists of four aluminum arms that are connected to a rotational shaft via a cylindrical hub. For the construction of the third prototype of the sensor platform, an optimization of the rotational arm-hub connection was performed. The goal of the new design was to allow for easier system assembly, maintenance, and the ability to carry a larger sensor payload. The following work describes the complete design and development of the new arm-hub connection through the use of both analytical and finite element analysis (FEA) using Pro-Engineer and Pro-Mechanica solid modeling software

Gravitational Acceleration of Spinning Bodies From Lunar Laser Ranging Measurements

The Sun's relativistic gravitational gradient accelerations of Earth and Moon, dependent on the motions of the latter bodies, act upon the system's internal angular momentum. This spin-orbit force (which plays a part in determining the gravity wave signal templates for astrophysical sources) slightly accelerates the Earth-Moon system as a whole, but it more robustly perturbs that system's internal dynamics with a 5 cm, synodically oscillating range contribution which is presently measured to 4 mm precision by more than three decades of lunar laser ranging.Comment: 10 pages, PCTex32.v3.

Numerical and experimental studies of multi-ply woven carbon fibre prepreg forming process

Woven carbon fibre prepreg is being increasingly used in high-performance aerospace and automotive applications, primarily because of its superior mechanical properties and formability. A wide range of forming simulation options are available for predicting material deformation during the prepreg forming process, particularly change in fibre orientation. Development of a robust validated simulation model requires comprehensive material characterisation and reliable experimental validation techniques. This paper presents experimental and numerical methods for studying the fibre orientation in multi-ply woven carbon fibre prepreg forming process, using a double-dome geometry. The numerical study is performed using the commercial forming simulation software PAM-FORM and the material input data are generated from a comprehensive experimental material characterisation. Two experimental validation methods are adopted for fibre shear angle measurement: an optical method for measuring only the surface plies, and a novel CT scan method for measuring both the surface plies and the internal plies. The simulation results are compared against the experimental results in terms of fibre shear angle and the formation of wrinkles to assess the validity of the model

Haptic-Multimodal Flight Control System Update

The rapidly advancing capabilities of autonomous aircraft suggest a future where many of the responsibilities of today s pilot transition to the vehicle, transforming the pilot s job into something akin to driving a car or simply being a passenger. Notionally, this transition will reduce the specialized skills, training, and attention required of the human user while improving safety and performance. However, our experience with highly automated aircraft highlights many challenges to this transition including: lack of automation resilience; adverse human-automation interaction under stress; and the difficulty of developing certification standards and methods of compliance for complex systems performing critical functions traditionally performed by the pilot (e.g., sense and avoid vs. see and avoid). Recognizing these opportunities and realities, researchers at NASA Langley are developing a haptic-multimodal flight control (HFC) system concept that can serve as a bridge between today s state of the art aircraft that are highly automated but have little autonomy and can only be operated safely by highly trained experts (i.e., pilots) to a future in which non-experts (e.g., drivers) can safely and reliably use autonomous aircraft to perform a variety of missions. This paper reviews the motivation and theoretical basis of the HFC system, describes its current state of development, and presents results from two pilot-in-the-loop simulation studies. These preliminary studies suggest the HFC reshapes human-automation interaction in a way well-suited to revolutionary ease-of-use

Piloted Evaluation of the H-Mode, a Variable Autonomy Control System, in Motion-Based Simulation

As aircraft become able to autonomously respond to a range of situations with performance surpassing human operators, we are compelled to look for new methods that help understand their use and guide the design of new, more effective forms of automation and interaction. The "H-mode" is one such method and is based on the metaphor of a well-trained horse. The concept allows the pilot to manage a broad range of control automation functionality, from augmented manual control to FMS-like coupling and automation initiated actions, using a common interface system and easily learned set of interaction skills. The interface leverages familiar manual control interfaces (e.g., the control stick) and flight displays through the addition of contextually dependent haptic-multimodal elements. The concept is relevant to manned and remotely piloted vehicles. This paper provides an overview of the H-mode concept followed by a presentation of the results from a recent evaluation conducted in a motion-based simulator. The evaluation focused on assessing the overall usability and flying qualities of the concept with an emphasis on the effects of turbulence and cockpit motion. Because the H-mode results in interactions between traditional flying qualities and management of higher-level flight path automation, these effects are of particular interest. The results indicate that the concept may provide a useful complement or replacement to conventional interfaces, and retains the usefulness in the presence of turbulence and motion

Extension of a theorem of Cauchy and Jacobi

AbstractLet q and p be prime with q = a2 + b2 ≡ 1 (mod 4), a ≡ 1 (mod 4), and p = qf + 1. In the nineteenth century Cauchy (Mém. Inst. France 17 (1840), 249–768) and Jacobi (J. für Math. 30 (1846), 166–182) generalized the work of earlier authors, who had determined certain binomial coefficients (mod p) (see H. J. S. Smith, “Report on the Theory of Numbers,” Chelsea, 1964), by determining two products of factorials given by Πk kf! (mod p = qf + 1) where k runs through the quadratic residues and the quadratic non-residues (mod q), respectively. These determinations are given in terms of parameters in representations of ph or of 4ph by binary quadratic forms. A remarkable feature of these results is the fact that the exponent h coincides with the class number of the related quadratic field. In this paper C. R. Mathews' (Invent. Math. 54 (1979), 23–52) recent explicit evaluation of the quartic Gauss sum is used to determine four products of factorials (mod p = qf + 1, q ≡ 5 (mod 8) > 5), given by Πk kf! where k runs through the quartic residues (mod q) and the three cosets which may be formed with respect to this subgroup. These determinations appear to be considerably more difficult. They are given in terms of parameters in representations of 16ph by quaternary quadratic forms. Stickelberger's theorem is required to determine the exponent h which is shown to be closely related to the class number of the imaginary quartic field Q(i√2q + 2a√q), q = a2 + b2 ≡ 5 (mod 8), a odd

Clustering Hyperspectral Imagery for Improved Adaptive Matched Filter Performance

This paper offers improvements to adaptive matched filter (AMF) performance by addressing correlation and non-homogeneity problems inherent to hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The estimation of the mean vector and covariance matrix of the background should be calculated using “target-free” data. This statement reflects the difficulty that including target data in estimates of the mean vector and covariance matrix of the background could entail. This data could act as statistical outliers and severely contaminate the estimators. This fact serves as the impetus for a 2-stage process: First, attempt to remove the target data from the background by way of the employment of anomaly detectors. Next, with remaining data being relatively “target-free” the way is cleared for signature matching. Relative to the first stage, we were able to test seven different anomaly detectors, some of which are designed specifically to deal with the spatial correlation of HSI data and/or the presence of anomalous pixels in local or global mean and covariance estimators. Relative to the second stage, we investigated the use of cluster analytic methods to boost AMF performance. The research shows that accounting for spatial correlation effects in the detector yields nearly “target-free” data for use in an AMF that is greatly benefitted through the use of cluster analysis methods

Why Does Second-Cutting Red Clover Hay Slobber Animals

For years, farmers have noticed the slobbering of animals after feeding second-cutting red clover hay. Severity of this effect, however, has varied from year to year. Questions asked many times are what causes the slobbering and what can be done about it? To get the answers available, let\u27s go back about 37 years into something which appears to be totally unrelated to slobbering and follow research which has been done on a fungus, which causes a disease of red clover