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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

INTEGRATED RISK ASSESSMENT OF DIGITAL I&C SAFETY SYSTEMS FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

Upgrading the existing analog instrumentation and control (I&C) systems to state-of-the-art digital I&C (DI&C) systems provides the foremost means to improve performance and reduce costs for existing light-water reactors (LWRs). However, qualification of digital technologies remains a challenge?especially the issue of software common cause failure (CCF), which has been difficult to address. Existing analyses of CCFs in I&C systems mainly focus on hardware failures. With the application and upgrading of new DI&C systems, software CCFs due to design flaws might become a potential threat to plant safety, considering that most redundancy designs use similar digital platforms or software in their operating and application systems. With complex multi-layer redundancy designs to meet the single failure criterion, these I&C safety systems are of particular concern in U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing procedures. In 2019, the Risk-Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway of the U.S. Department of Energy?s (DOE?s) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program initiated a project to develop a risk assessment strategy for delivering a strong technical basis to support effective, licensable, secure DI&C technologies for digital upgrades/designs. An integrated risk assessment for the DI&C (RADIC) process was proposed for this strategy to identify potential key digital-induced failures, implement reliability analyses of related digital safety I&C systems, and evaluate the unanalyzed sequences introduced by these failures (particularly software CCFs) at the plant level. This paper summarizes these RISA efforts in the risk analysis of safety-related DI& systems at Idaho National Laboratory.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Digital Twins and Living Models at NASA

The idea of a “digital twin” was born at NASA in the 1960s as a “living model” of the Apollo mission. In response to Apollo 13’s oxygen tank explosion and subsequent damage to the main engine, NASA employed multiple simulators to evaluate the failure and extended a physical model of the vehicle to include digital components. This “digital twin” was the first of its kind, allowing for a continuous ingestion of data to model the events leading to up to the accident for forensic analysis and exploration of next steps. Fast forward half a century and NASA, along with others in the aerospace community, continues to develop and utilize high-fidelity digital models of physical systems and components as well as the extreme environments in which they operate. NASA aims to travel further and stay longer in space as we realize the Artemis program, taking us from the moon to Mars by establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars. We will no longer be able to rely on constant connectivity with an asset nor be in-the-loop for on-demand human intervention in the event of an anomaly. Further, the importance of digital twins is increasing as we seek alternatives for certification of structures so large that they cannot be fully evaluated in existing test facilities and autonomous systems that are not deterministic. The idea of a digital twin is not a new one. What is new is the scale, ordinality, and non-deterministic nature of the models that are critical to achieving NASA’s goals. Their number and autonomy from each other as well as the reference system is suggestive of a changing ecosystem, returning us the idea of a living model.

Digital Twin↗
DOE OSTI2018

Using Digital Waveforms to Mitigate Solvent Clustering During Mass Filter Analysis of Proteins

With advances in the precision of digital electronics, waveform generation technology has progressed to a state that enables the creation of m/z filters that are purely digitally driven. These advances present new methods of performing mass analyses that provide information from a chemical system that are inherently difficult to achieve by other means. One notable characteristic of digitally driven mass filters is the capacity to transmit ions at m/z ratios that vastly exceed the capabilities of traditional resonant systems. However, the capacity to probe ion m/z ratios that span multiple orders of magnitudes across multiple orders of magnitude presents a new set of issues requiring a solution. In the present work, when probing multiply charged protein species beyond m/z 2000 using a gentle atmospheric pressure interface, the presence of solvent adducts and poorly resolved multimers can severely degrade spectral fidelity. Increasing energy imparted into a target ion population is one approach minimizing these clusters; however, the use of digital waveform technology provides an alternative that maximizes ion transport efficiency and simultaneously minimizes solvent clustering. In addition to the frequency of the applied waveform, digital manipulation also provides control over the duty cycle of the target waveform. This work examines the conditions and approach leading to optimal digital waveform operation to minimize solvent clustering. .

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Digital logic for soft devices

Although soft devices (grippers, actuators, and elementary robots) are rapidly becoming an integral part of the broad field of robotics, autonomy for completely soft devices has only begun to be developed. Adaptation of conventional systems of control to soft devices requires hard valves and electronic controls. This paper describes completely soft pneumatic digital logic gates having a physical scale appropriate for use with current (macroscopic) soft actuators. Each digital logic gate utilizes a single bistable valve—the pneumatic equivalent of a Schmitt trigger—which relies on the snap-through instability of a hemispherical membrane to kink internal tubes and operates with binary high/low input and output pressures. Soft, pneumatic NOT, AND, and OR digital logic gates—which generate known pneumatic outputs as a function of one, or multiple, pneumatic inputs—allow fabrication of digital logic circuits for a set–reset latch, two-bit shift register, leading-edge detector, digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and toggle switch. The DAC and toggle switch, in turn, can control and power a soft actuator (demonstrated using a pneu-net gripper). We note ehese macroscale soft digital logic gates are scalable to high volumes of airflow, do not consume power at steady state, and can be reconfigured to achieve multiple functionalities from a single design (including configurations that receive inputs from the environment and from human users). This work represents a step toward a strategy to develop autonomous control—one not involving an electronic interface or hard components—for soft devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

An Integrated Risk Assessment Process of Safety-Related Digital I&C Systems in Nuclear Power Plants

Upgrading the existing analog instrumentation and control (I&C) systems to state-of-the-art digital I&C (DI&C) systems will greatly benefit existing light water reactors. However, the issue of software common cause failure (CCF) remains an obstacle in terms of qualification for digital technologies. Existing analyses of CCFs in I&C systems mainly focus on hardware failures. With the application and upgrading of new DI&C systems, design flaws could cause software CCFs to become a potential threat to plant safety, considering that most redundancy designs use similar digital platforms or software in their operating and application systems. With complex multilayer redundancy designs to meet the single failure criterion, these I&C safety systems are of particular concern in U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing procedures. In Fiscal Year 2019, the Risk-Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program initiated a project to develop a risk assessment strategy for delivering a strong technical basis to support effective, licensable, and secure DI&C technologies for digital upgrades and designs. An integrated risk assessment for the DI&C process was proposed for this strategy to identify potential key digital-induced failures, implement reliability analyses of related digital safety I&C systems, and evaluate the unanalyzed sequences introduced by these failures (particularly software CCFs) at the plant level. Here this paper summarizes these RISA efforts in the risk analysis of safety-related DI&C systems at Idaho National Laboratory.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Toward Mixed Analog-Digital Quantum Signal Processing: Quantum AD/DA Conversion and the Fourier Transform

Signal processing stands as a pillar of classical computation and modern information technology, applicable to both analog and digital signals. Recently, advancements in quantum information science have suggested that quantum signal processing (QSP) can enable more powerful signal processing capabilities. However, the developments in QSP have primarily leveraged digital quantum resources, such as discrete-variable (DV) systems like qubits, rather than analog quantum resources, such as continuous-variable (CV) systems like quantum oscillators. Consequently, there remains a gap in understanding how signal processing can be performed on hybrid CV-DV quantum computers. Here we address this gap by developing a new paradigm of mixed analog-digital QSP. We demonstrate the utility of this paradigm by showcasing how it naturally enables analog-digital conversion of quantum signals—specifically, the transfer of states between DV and CV quantum systems. We then show that such quantum analog-digital conversion enables new implementations of quantum algorithms on CV-DV hardware. This is exemplified by realizing the quantum Fourier transform of a state encoded on qubits via the free-evolution of a quantum oscillator, albeit with a runtime exponential in the number of qubits due to information theoretic arguments. Collectively, this work marks a significant step forward in hybrid CV-DV quantum computation, providing a foundation for scalable analog-digital signal processing on quantum processors.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-G-IeP2-15: Virtual Insertion of Digital Kidney Stones Into Dual-Source, Dual- Energy CT Projection Data

Purpose: In order to investigate novel methods to more accurately estimate the mineral composition of kidney stones using dual energy CT, it is desirable to be able to combine digital stones of known composition with actual phantom and patient scan data. In this work, we developed and validated a method to insert digital kidney stones into projection data acquired on a dual-source, dual-energy CT system. Methods: Attenuation properties of stones of different mineral composition were computed using tabulated mass attenuation coefficients, the chemical formula for each stone type, and the effective beam energy at each evaluated tube potential. A previously developed method to insert lesions into x-ray CT projection data was extended to include simultaneous dual-energy CT projections acquired on a dual-source gantry (Siemens Somatom Flash). Digital stones were forward projected onto both detectors and the resulting projections added to the physically acquired sinogram data. To validate the accuracy of the technique, digital stones were inserted into different locations in the ACR CT accreditation phantom; low and high contrast resolution, CT number accuracy and noise properties were compared before and after stone insertion. The procedure was repeated for two dual-energy tube potential pairs in clinical use on the scanner, 80/Sn140 kV and 100/Sn140 kV, respectively. Results: The images reconstructed after the insertion of digital kidney stones were consistent with the images reconstructed from the scanner. The largest average CT number difference for the 4 insert in the CT number accuracy module of the phantom was 3 HU. Conclusion: A framework was developed and validated for the creation of digital kidney stones of known mineral composition, and their projection-domain insertion into commercial dual-source, dual-energy CT projection data. This will allow a systematic investigation of the impact of scan and reconstruction parameters on stone attenuation and dual-energy behavior under rigorously controlled conditions. Dr. McCollough receives research support from Siemens Healthcare.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Tools, Techniques, and Methodologies: A Survey of Digital Forensics for SCADA Systems

Security aspects of SCADA environments and the systems within are increasingly a center of interest to researchers and security professionals. As the rise of sophisticated and nation-state malware targeting such systems flourishes, traditional digital forensics tools struggle to transfer the same capabilities to systems lacking typical volatile memory primitives, monitoring software, and the compatible operating-system primitives necessary for conducting forensic investigations. Even worse, SCADA systems are typically not designed and implemented with security in mind, nor were they purpose-built to monitor and record system data at the granularity associated with traditional IT systems. Rather, these systems are often built to control field devices and drive industrial processes. More succinctly, SCADA systems were not designed with a primary goal of interacting with the digital world. Consequently, forensics investigators well-versed in the world of digital forensics and incident response face an array of challenges that prevent them from conducting effective forensic investigation in environments with vast amounts of critical infrastructure. In order to bring SCADA systems within the reach of the armies of digital forensics professionals and tooling already available, both researchers and practitioners need a guide to the current state-of-the-art techniques, a road-map to the challenges lying on the path forward, and insight into the future directions R&D must move towards. To that end, this paper presents a survey into the literature on digital forensics applied to SCADA systems. We cover not only the challenges to applying digital forensics to SCADA like most other reviews, but also the range of proposed frameworks, methodologies, and actual implementations in literature.

Asmar Awad, Rima↗
DOE OSTI2016

A high performance cost-effective digital complex correlator for an X-band polarimetry survey

The detailed knowledge of the Milky Way radio emission is important to characterize galactic foregrounds masking extragalactic and cosmological signals. The update of the global sky models describing radio emissions over a very large spectral band requires high sensitivity experiments capable of observing large sky areas with long integration times. Here, we present the design of a new 10 GHz (X-band) polarimeter digital backend to map the polarization components of the galactic synchrotron radiation field of the Northern Hemisphere sky. The design follows the digital processing trends in radio astronomy and implements a large bandwidth (1 GHz) digital complex cross-correlator to extract the Stokes parameters of the incoming synchrotron radiation field. The hardware constraints cover the implemented VLSI hardware description language code and the preliminary results. The implementation is based on the simultaneous digitized acquisition of the Cartesian components of the two linear receiver polarization channels. The design strategy involves a double data rate acquisition of the ADC interleaved parallel bus, and field programmable gate array device programming at the register transfer mode. The digital core of the back-end is capable of processing 32 Gbps and is built around an Altera field programmable gate array clocked at 250 MHz, 1 GSps analog to digital converters and a clock generator. The control of the field programmable gate array internal signal delays and a convenient use of its phase locked loops provide the timing requirements to achieve the target bandwidths and sensitivity. This solution is convenient for radio astronomy experiments requiring large bandwidth, high functionality, high volume availability and low cost. Of particular interest, this correlator was developed for the Galactic Emission Mapping project and is suitable for large sky area polarization continuum surveys. The solutions may also be adapted to be used at signal processing subsystem levels for large projects like the square kilometer array testbeds.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Next Generation Qualification: Geotech Instruments SMART24B Digitizer Evaluation

Sandia National Laboratories has tested and evaluated a digitizer, the SMART24B, manufactured by Geotech Instruments, LLC. These digitizers are used to record sensor output for seismic and infrasound monitoring applications. The purpose of the digitizer evaluation was to measure the performance characteristics in such areas as power consumption, input impedance, sensitivity, full scale, self-noise, dynamic range, system noise, response, passband, and timing. The SMART24B is Geotech's datalogger intended for borehole deployment in their digitizer product line. The SMART24B is available with either 3 or 6 channels at 24 bit resolution. The digitizer is to be deployed in boreholes, therefore are a minimum number of connections required on the digitizer case as datalogger utilizes a distribution panel, mounted up-hole, serving to breakout power, GPS, serial communications and ethernet connections.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2019

2018 Kinemetrics Q330M+ Digitizer Evaluation

Sandia National Laboratories has tested and evaluated two Kinemetrics Q330M+ digitizers. The digitizers are intended to record sensor output for seismic and infrasound monitoring applications. Notable improvements to the Q330M+ include the support for transmission and authentication of CD1.1 data, integration of analog and digital weather stations, support for multiple gain amplification levels, and the use of a webpage for status and configuration of the digitizer. The purpose of this digitizer evaluation is to measure the performance characteristics in such areas as power consumption, input impedance, sensitivity, full scale, self-noise, dynamic range, system noise, response, passband, and timing. The digitizers are being evaluated for potential use in the International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test- Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced Monitoring and Control in the ANL METL Facility Using an Engineering Digital Twin

The potential benefits of using an engineering digital twin to achieve greater autonomy for monitoring and control functions in advanced reactors was investigated for the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) liquid sodium facility at Argonne National Laboratory. The METL sodium purification system served as a representative system as it requires significant human in-the-loop interaction to accomplish its design function. The objective was to demonstrate how real-time operation could be automated while preserving oversight of the operator for ensuring that the system design functions are met. A digital twin model of the purification system was developed for both the cold trap purification loop and plugging meter diagnostic loop using information from the METL piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID). Automated monitoring and diagnosis of component degradation in the METL facility was demonstrated in tests using the PRO-AID health monitoring software with the digital twin model incorporated in the library of components. Component failures were introduced and were successfully diagnosed in real time. These tests serve to demonstrate an advanced monitoring capability able to differentiate sensor degradation from component degradation, to generate a rank ordering of probabilities of different failure mechanisms that serves to circumvent the false alarm problem with current anomaly detection methods, and how facility monitoring can be transformed from anomaly detection to identification of a specific fault. Automated control of the purification system was demonstrated through simulations that exercised a model predictive controller designed using the digital twin model. Results of these simulations compared favorably with experimental data showing very good reference tracking response with negligible overshoot. In conclusion, these pilot tests and simulations successfully demonstrated the use of a digital twin for improved automation of monitoring and control. It was shown how the digital twin enables switching between control modes from cold trap operation where impurities are removed to plugging meter operation where impurity concentrations are measured.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Strategic Research and Development Insights for Digital Twins

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is pleased to provide our response to the NITRD RFI on Digital Twins Research and Development. Digital twins are virtual representations of physical systems, leveraging real-time data to simulate and predict behaviors. ORNL is advancing digital twin technology across various disciplines, including neutron scattering, networking, science ecosystems, supercomputing, secure facilities, mobility technologies, materials design and discovery, power systems, fusion reactors, biological sciences, and earth observation. These efforts aim to enhance scientific research, operational efficiency, and decision-making processes. ORNL facilities, such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), Grid-C, Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), and Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), provide the infrastructure to develop and demonstrate these digital twin technologies. In this document, we lay out key challenges, research gaps, and future opportunities based on our experience with digital twins that aim to serve as useful contributions towards a National Digital Twins R&D Strategic Plan. In the remaining document, we address nine of the thirteen topic areas specified in the RFI.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

MPEX AI Digital Twins

All magnetically confined plasma fusion power plant concepts (Tokamak, Spherical Tokamak, Stellarator, Mirror, ...) must exhaust the heat and plasma from the core confinement region to the material walls. The primary channel for this exhaust is through a plasma divertor which directs plasma along open magnetic field lines to a material target. The Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) illustrated in Figure 1, is a high-power, steady-state linear plasma device designed to produce the plasma material interaction (PMI) conditions of the divertor of future magnetic confinement fusion power plants: energy flux 20MW/m 2 , ion fluence 1031/m 2 , pulse duration 106 sec. These goals of plasma exposure in MPEX are well beyond those achieved in magnetic fusion experimental devices. Successfully achieving these high power steady state conditions for long pulses requires operational control of the heating and particle sources and the plasma flux to the walls and target. The MPEX AI Hot Spot Controller, proposed in this project, will help achieve the operational milestones of MPEX. The MPEX device will begin commissioning at the end of FY26. A smaller proto-MPEX was operated for 14,666 plasma discharges and will resume operation in September of 2025 as proto-MPEX-lite, with reduced capability, to test a new window for the Helicon plasma source. The proto-MPEX data has undergone surrogate modeling with machine learning methods (R. Archibald, 2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data). This proto-MPEX data will be used to begin development of the AI digital twins described in this white paper. The scientific mission of MPEX is to qualify materials of different composition for use in the high energy and plasma flux conditions of a fusion power plant. The materials exposed in MPEX will in some cases be exposed to high neutron fluxes at other ORNL facilities to measure the changes to their PMI properties. The targets exposed in MPEX will be transported under vacuum to a Surface Analysis Station (SAS). The SAS will be equipped with the following diagnostics: Focused Ion Beam (FIB) for trench milling, 100-400 angstrom resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM), surface mapping x-ray spectrometer, high resolution camera, and a future upgrade to a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy quadruple mass spectrometer (LIBS-QMS). The MPEX experiments will generate diverse pre- and post-exposure measurement data of detailed material properties down to the crystal grain level in 3D for post-exposure assessment of PMI damage (e.g. cracking, melting, erosion and redeposition of the material). Physics models for the PMI, and how the material composition and manufacturing impact its performance under high energy plasma exposure, need to be validated with MPEX data to guide the selection of new candidate materials. Our vision for the MPEX AI Digital Twins project is to supply experimental and physics model simulation data to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) models for data processing, analysis, operational control, PMI and materials simulation to maximize the scientific output of the MPEX device. Ultimately, an AI digital twin of MPEX material assessment metrics for tested and synthetic material types with simulated PMI will be trained by the AI Modeling Teams on the experimental and physics simulation data submitted to the American Science Cloud by this project. A purely empirical search for the best material is inefficient given the finite number of samples that can be tested on MPEX. In order to expand the material properties database for training the MPEX Material Assessment AI Digital Twin, and to gain physics understanding of the PMI processes, physics models of the material properties and PMI processes are required. The physics simulations provide detailed simulation data, like impact angles for plasma ions, sputtering yields, transport of the ionized sputtered target material in the plasma, and redeposition locations. This simulation data expands the measurement data for deeper physics understanding. The experimental data is essential to validate the PMI and material structure simulation models. The validated models can then be used to generate new simulation data of MPEX material assessments for synthetic material compositions that have not been exposed in MPEX. These predictive simulations, plus the whole experimental dataset, will be used to train the MPEX Material Assessment AI Digital Twin allowing a rapid generative AI search for new materials with reduced PMI damage by interpolating the domain of the training set. These new optimum materials can be simulated with the physics codes and/or tested in MPEX. The ability of AI neural networks to interpolate multi-dimensional parameter spaces and generate virtual data is exploited for a more efficient search for optimum materials. The advent of the Transformational AI Models Consortium (TAIMC) is an opportunity to engage with state of the art private and public AI developers to achieve the goals of the AI digital twins and AI accelerated physics models proposed in this project. Our partners at ORNL from the Advance Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) organization will collaborate in accelerating the integrated plasma material interaction simulation framework. This simulation framework will provide a platform for generating simulation data across a range of physical fidelities, including hybrid methods that produce multi-fidelity results. This data will be leveraged for AI model development, both for generation of surrogates and the automation of simulation campaigns. A part of the research below will include collaborative efforts with the TAIMC to (i) adapt data storage approaches to ensure AI-readiness, (ii) provide a protypical exemplar to inform and exercise constructed workflows, and (iii) generate and share data, using the TAIMC unified AI data standard, for foundational models that will be trained from multiple sources across the DOE complex. We will also collaborate with the TAIMC, as well as the planned AI modeling teams, to develop approaches for reducing the cost of data generation. These include tailored multi-fidelity approaches as well as fine-tuning strategies to augment general, large-scale foundational models.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1972

Digital circuits for computer applications: A compilation

The innovations in this updated series of compilations dealing with electronic technology represent a carefully selected collection of digital circuits which have direct application in computer oriented systems. In general, the circuits have been selected as representative items of each section and have been included on their merits of having universal applications in digital computers and digital data processing systems. As such, they should have wide appeal to the professional engineer and scientist who encounter the fundamentals of digital techniques in their daily activities. The circuits are grouped as digital logic circuits, analog to digital converters, and counters and shift registers.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1972

Quantization noise in digital speech

The amount of quantization noise generated in a digital-to-analog converter is dependent on the number of bits or quantization levels used to digitize the analog signal in the analog-to-digital converter. The minimum number of quantization levels and the minimum sample rate were derived for a digital voice channel. A sample rate of 6000 samples per second and lowpass filters with a 3 db cutoff of 2400 Hz are required for 100 percent sentence intelligibility. Consonant sounds are the first speech components to be degraded by quantization noise. A compression amplifier can be used to increase the weighting of the consonant sound amplitudes in the analog-to-digital converter. An expansion network must be installed at the output of the digital-to-analog converter to restore the original weighting of the consonant sounds. This technique results in 100 percent sentence intelligibility for a sample rate of 5000 samples per second, eight quantization levels, and lowpass filters with a 3 db cutoff of 2000 Hz.

Schmidt, O. L.↗
NASA NTRS1973

An all digital low data rate communication system

The advent of digital hardwares has made it feasible to implement many communication system components digitally. With the exception of frequency down conversion, the proposed low data rate communication system uses digital hardwares completely. Although the system is designed primarily for deep space communications with large frequency uncertainty and low signal-to-noise ratio, it is also suitable for other low data rate applications with time-shared operation among a number of channels. Emphasis is placed on the fast Fourier transform receiver and the automatic frequency control via digital filtering. The speed available from the digital system allows sophisticated signal processing to reduce frequency uncertainty and to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The practical limitations of the system such as the finite register length are examined. It is concluded that the proposed all-digital system is not only technically feasible but also has potential cost reduction over the existing receiving systems.

Chen, C.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Design of a digital controller for spinning flexible spacecraft.

A new approach to digital control system design is applied to the analysis and design of a practical onboard digital attitude control system for a class of spinning vehicles characterized by a rigid body and two connected flexible appendages. The approach used is to design a continuous-data control system that will provide a satisfactory system response. Then, using the digital redesign method, a digital controller with onboard digital computer is designed to provide a digital control system whose states are similar to those of the continuous system at sampling instants. The simplicity of application of this approach is indicated by an example in which spinning Skylab parameters are used to substantiate the conclusions.

Kuo, B. C.↗