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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Design and evaluation of control systems for large communications satellites

Control techniques for future large flexible spacecraft are developed. Control design and analysis are supported by a comprehensive CAD system. The proposed operational mobile communications satellite (OMSAT) featuring a 44 m offset fed antenna is used as target application. Requirements for satellite attitude control and communications beam pointing are defined. The following control methods are applied to the system: standard linear optimal regulator (LOR) with Luenberger observer, LOR/observer with selective spill-over suppression, frequency shaped LOR, LOR with closed-loop order reduction by cost decoupling, and robust servomechanism.

Steiber, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A description of the research for period 3 of a research program on the planning and control for space robotic manipulators

The objective of this research program is to develop control techniques to enable future space robotic systems to meet their mission objectives. This report covers our work during the past year, 1 Feb. 1991 - 31 Jan. 1992 in this three-year research program (1 Aug. 1990 - 31 Jul. 1993). During this past year, we have made very significant progress in our theoretical and analytical work on algorithm development, our simulation studies, and our experimental investigation. This progress is summarized.

Dubowsky, Steven↗
NASA NTRS1990

Real time control for NASA robotic gripper

The ability to easily manipulate objects in a zero gravity environment will pay a key role in future space activities. Emphasis will be placed on robotic manipulation. This will serve to increase astronaut safety and utility in addition to several other benefits. The aim is to develop control laws for the zero gravity robotic end effectors. A hybrid force/position controller will be used. Sensory data available to the controller are obtained from an array of strain gauges and a linear potentiometer. Applying well known optimal control theoretical principles, the control which minimizes the transition time between positions is obtained. A robust force control scheme is developed which allows the desired holding force to be achieved smoothly without oscillation. In addition, an algorithm is found to determine contact force and contact location.

Salter, Carole A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Future Air Force aircraft propulsion control systems: The extended summary paper

Hydromechanical control technology simply cannot compete against the performance benefits offered by electronics. Future military aircraft propulsion control systems will be full authority, digital electronic, microprocessor base systems. Anticipating the day when microprocessor technology will permit the integration and management of aircraft flight control, fire control and propulsion control systems, the Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory is developing control logic algorithms for a real time, adaptive control and diagnostic information system.

Skira, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Advanced Concept Modeling

Advanced Concepts Modeling software validation, analysis, and design. This was a National Institute of Aerospace contract with a lot of pieces. Efforts ranged from software development and validation for structures and aerodynamics, through flight control development, and aeropropulsive analysis, to UAV piloting services.

Chaput, Armand↗
NASA NTRS2007

Framework Based Guidance Navigation and Control Flight Software Development

This viewgraph presentation describes NASA's guidance navigation and control flight software development background. The contents include: 1) NASA/Goddard Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) Flight Software (FSW) Development Background; 2) GN&C FSW Development Improvement Concepts; and 3) GN&C FSW Application Framework.

McComas, David↗
NASA NTRS1987

Problems associated with reaction mass actuators used in conjunction with LQG control on the Mini-Mast

The work being done at NASA LaRC on developing control laws for the Mini-Mast experimental facility is reviewed with particular attention given to the problems associated with the stroke limit of the reaction mass actuators used in conjunction with the LQG control. An algorithm for converting the force commands of the LQG algorithm into position command for the reaction mass devices is described. It is shown that the position command can be used as an input to a local controller so that the relative position of the reaction mass would track the commanded relative position. The stabilization of the integration scheme makes it possible to avoid the position drift arising in the direct double integration method of converting force commands to position commands.

Ghosh, D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Robust eigenstructure assignment by a projection method: Application using multiple optimization criteria

New ideas which lead to feedback control laws for large flexible structures which are insensitive to model uncertainty are presented. A pole placement method is presented which leads to near-unitary closed loop eigenvectors, and a new method is introduced to design the control while simultaneously considering three competing measures of optimality. Robustness versus Integral algorithms are applicable to at least moderately high-dimensioned systems. In the present discussion, controls for two coupled flexible bodies are considered. A 6x24 gain matrix is designed to control a 12 modes system using 6 actuators. Researchers also developed control laws for the R2P2 simulator at Martin Marietta; in this case 3 actuators are used to control a 12th order system. Simulation studies indicate that researchers indeed achieved robust designs without significant difficulties associated with spillover into the uncontrolled modes. Here, several key ideas and numerical results are given. In the references, details of the formulation, discussions of salient features, and connection to the availiable literature are given.

Junkins, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Technology Development for a Stirling Radioisotope Power System

NASA Glenn Research Center and the Department of Energy are developing a Stirling convertor for an advanced radioisotope power system to provide spacecraft on-board electric power for NASA deep space missions. NASA Glenn is addressing key technology issues through the use of two NASA Phase II SBIRs with Stirling Technology Company (STC) of Kennewick, WA. Under the first SBIR, STC demonstrated a synchronous connection of two thermodynamically independent free-piston Stirling convertors and a 40 to 50 fold reduction in vibrations compared to an unbalanced convertor. The second SBIR is for the development of an Adaptive Vibration Reduction System (AVRS) that will essentially eliminate vibrations over the mission lifetime, even in the unlikely event of a failed convertor. This paper presents the status and results for these two SBIR projects and also discusses a new NASA Glenn in-house project to provide supporting technology for the overall Stirling radioisotope power system development. Tasks for this new effort include convertor performance verification, controls development, heater head structural life assessment, magnet characterization and thermal aging tests, FEA analysis for a lightweight alternator concept, and demonstration of convertor operation under launch and orbit transfer load conditions.

Thieme, Lanny G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Apparel for Cleaner Clean Rooms

In the 1960s NASA pioneered contamination control technology, providing a base from which aerospace contractors could develop control measures. NASA conducted special courses for clean room technicians and supervisors, and published a series of handbooks with input from various NASA field centers. These handbooks extended aerospace experience to the medical, pharmaceutical, electronics, and other industries where extreme cleanliness is important. American Hospital Supply Company (AHSC) felt that high technology products with increasingly stringent operating requirements in aerospace, electronics, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment manufacturing demanded improvement in contamination control techniques. After studying the NASA handbooks and visiting NASA facilities, the wealth of information gathered resulted in Micro-clean non-woven garments and testing equipment and procedures for evaluating effectiveness.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2012

Resolving Off-Nominal Situations in Schedule-Based Terminal Area Operations: Results from a Human-in-the-Loop Simulation

A recent human-in-the-loop simulation in the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) at NASA's Ames Research Center investigated the robustness of Controller-Managed Spacing (CMS) operations. CMS refers to AOL-developed controller tools and procedures for enabling arrivals to conduct efficient Optimized Profile Descents with sustained high throughput. The simulation provided a rich data set for examining how a traffic management supervisor and terminal-area controller participants used the CMS tools and coordinated to respond to off-nominal events. This paper proposes quantitative measures for characterizing the participants responses. Case studies of go-around events, replicated during the simulation, provide insights into the strategies employed and the role the CMS tools played in supporting them.

Mercer, Joey↗
NASA NTRS1974

Develop minimum thrustor control laws and select orbits for a geodesy drag-free satellite

The original motivation for studying control laws for pulse plasma systems was based on the improved life characteristics possible with pulse plasma jets. These pulse plasma units are relatively massive compared with cold gas thrustors. As a result, therefore, significant mass savings can be achieved by minimizing the the number of thrustors. The control laws, therefore, were developed for thrust available from two thrustors only. In a spinning satellite, these thrustors are sufficient to completely control the vehicle as long as the spin rate is sufficiently high for a given level of external disturbance. The thrustors are canted so that a component of each is along the plus and minus spin axis. The other component of each thrustor acts in the radial direction. It is sufficient to analyze the behavior in the plane of spin assuming a single thrustor.

Breakwell, J. V.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Large space structures controls research and development at Marshall Space Flight Center: Status and future plans

Work performed in Large Space Structures Controls research and development program at Marshall Space Flight Center is described. Studies to develop a multilevel control approach which supports a modular or building block approach to the buildup of space platforms are discussed. A concept has been developed and tested in three-axis computer simulation utilizing a five-body model of a basic space platform module. Analytical efforts have continued to focus on extension of the basic theory and subsequent application. Consideration is also given to specifications to evaluate several algorithms for controlling the shape of Large Space Structures.

Buchanan, H. J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A computationally efficient error-based adaptive control scheme for kinematically redundant manipulators

A Cartesian-space control scheme is developed to control the motion of kinematically redundant manipulators with 7 degrees of freedom (DOF). The control scheme consists mainly of proportional-derivative (PD) controllers whose gains are adjusted by an adaptation law driven by the errors between the desired and actual trajectories. The adaptation law is derived using the concept of model reference adaptive control (MRAC) and Liapunov direct method under the assumption that the manipulator performs noncompliant and slowly-varying motions. The developed control scheme is computationally efficient because its implementation does not require the computation of the manipulator dynamics. Computer simulation performed to evaluate the control scheme performance is presented and discussed.

Nguyen, Charles C.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Implementation of CAPIO for Composite Adaptive Control of Cross-Coupled Unstable Aircraft

This paper presents an implementation of a recently developed control allocation algorithm CAPIO (a Control Allocation technique to recover from Pilot Induced Oscillations) for composite adaptive control of an inertially cross coupled unstable aircraft. When actuators are rate-saturated due to either an aggressive pilot command, high gain of the flight control system or some anomaly in the system, the effective delay in the control loop may increase due to the phase shifting between the desired and the achieved system states. This effective time delay may deteriorate the performance or even destabilize the system in some cases, depending on the severity of rate saturation. CAPIO reduces the effective time delay by minimizing the phase shift between the commanded and the actual attitude accelerations. We present simulation results for an unstable aircraft with cross-coupling controlled with a composite adaptive controller in the presence of rate saturation. The simulations demonstrate the potential of CAPIO serving as an effective rate saturation compensator in adverse conditions.

Yildiz, Yildiray↗
NASA NTRS1990

Position control of redundant manipulators using an adaptive error-based control scheme

A Cartesian-space control scheme is developed to control the motion of kinematically redundant manipulators with 7 degrees of freedom (DOF). The control scheme consists mainly of proportional derivative (PD) controllers whose gains are adjusted by an adaptation law driven by the errors between the desired and actual trajectories. The adaptation law is derived using the concept of model reference adaptive control (MRAC) and Lyapunov direct method under the assumption that the manipulator performs non-compliant and slowly-varying motions. The developed control scheme is computationally efficient because its implementation does not require the computation of the manipulator dynamics. Computer simulation performed to evaluate the control scheme performance is presented and discussed.

Nguyen, Charles C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Programable Multicrate Controller

High-speed, environmentally hardened controller developed for use with commercially available system crates for both experiment control and data handling. Programable crate controller consists of three functional areas: control section utilizes high-speed bit-slice circuitry, memory, and data way interface.

Mook, G. L.↗