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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 73 records · Page 4

Uncertainty Management for Diagnostics and Prognostics of Batteries using Bayesian Techniques

Uncertainty management has always been the key hurdle faced by diagnostics and prognostics algorithms. A Bayesian treatment of this problem provides an elegant and theoretically sound approach to the modern Condition- Based Maintenance (CBM)/Prognostic Health Management (PHM) paradigm. The application of the Bayesian techniques to regression and classification in the form of Relevance Vector Machine (RVM), and to state estimation as in Particle Filters (PF), provides a powerful tool to integrate the diagnosis and prognosis of battery health. The RVM, which is a Bayesian treatment of the Support Vector Machine (SVM), is used for model identification, while the PF framework uses the learnt model, statistical estimates of noise and anticipated operational conditions to provide estimates of remaining useful life (RUL) in the form of a probability density function (PDF). This type of prognostics generates a significant value addition to the management of any operation involving electrical systems.

Saha, Bhaskar↗

Nonlinear Unsteady Aerodynamic Modeling Using Wind Tunnel and Computational Data

Extensions to conventional aircraft aerodynamic models are required to adequately predict responses when nonlinear unsteady flight regimes are encountered, especially at high incidence angles and under maneuvering conditions. For a number of reasons, such as loss of control, both military and civilian aircraft may extend beyond normal and benign aerodynamic flight conditions. In addition, military applications may require controlled flight beyond the normal envelope, and civilian flight may require adequate recovery or prevention methods from these adverse conditions. These requirements have led to the development of more general aerodynamic modeling methods and provided impetus for researchers to improve both techniques and the degree of collaboration between analytical and experimental research efforts. In addition to more general mathematical model structures, dynamic test methods have been designed to provide sufficient information to allow model identification. This paper summarizes research to develop a modeling methodology appropriate for modeling aircraft aerodynamics that include nonlinear unsteady behaviors using both experimental and computational test methods. This work was done at Langley Research Center, primarily under the NASA Aviation Safety Program, to address aircraft loss of control, prevention, and recovery aerodynamics.

Murphy, Patrick C.↗

Rotorcraft derivative identification from analytical models and flight test data

A general procedure is presented for systematic development of rotorcraft models for use in systems identification, which includes fuselage and rotor degrees of freedom (DOF). Formulations for rigid blade flap and lag as well as the normal mode representation of an elastic blade are developed for hingeless and articulated rotor systems. The method of multiblade coordinates is used to obtain linear constant coefficient state variable models of various levels of approximation. Two of the approximate models, a 6 DOF, are identified from a nonlinear articulated helicopter computer simulation. The results demonstrate the accuracy attainable for each model. Advanced results outline the status of rotorcraft modeling and systems identification and indicate areas that require further investigation.

Molusis, J. A.↗

Integrated Analysis Of Static Distributed Systems

Integrated approach encompasses modeling, identification of parameters, estimation of states, and control. Applies to models specified in part by possibly interconnected elliptic partial differential equations for deflections of structures under static loads. Appropriate for systems in which time-dependent effects negligibleand where control forces applied without exciting significiant dynamic behavior.

Rodriguez, Guillermo↗

Structured Uncertainty Bound Determination From Data for Control and Performance Validation

This report attempts to document the broad scope of issues that must be satisfactorily resolved before one can expect to methodically obtain, with a reasonable confidence, a near-optimal robust closed loop performance in physical applications. These include elements of signal processing, noise identification, system identification, model validation, and uncertainty modeling. Based on a recently developed methodology involving a parameterization of all model validating uncertainty sets for a given linear fractional transformation (LFT) structure and noise allowance, a new software, Uncertainty Bound Identification (UBID) toolbox, which conveniently executes model validation tests and determine uncertainty bounds from data, has been designed and is currently available. This toolbox also serves to benchmark the current state-of-the-art in uncertainty bound determination and in turn facilitate benchmarking of robust control technology. To help clarify the methodology and use of the new software, two tutorial examples are provided. The first involves the uncertainty characterization of a flexible structure dynamics, and the second example involves a closed loop performance validation of a ducted fan based on an uncertainty bound from data. These examples, along with other simulation and experimental results, also help describe the many factors and assumptions that determine the degree of success in applying robust control theory to practical problems.

Lim, Kyong B.↗

Estimation of Aircraft Nonlinear Unsteady Parameters From Wind Tunnel Data

Aerodynamic equations were formulated for an aircraft in one-degree-of-freedom large amplitude motion about each of its body axes. The model formulation based on indicial functions separated the resulting aerodynamic forces and moments into static terms, purely rotary terms and unsteady terms. Model identification from experimental data combined stepwise regression and maximum likelihood estimation in a two-stage optimization algorithm that can identify the unsteady term and rotary term if necessary. The identification scheme was applied to oscillatory data in two examples. The model identified from experimental data fit the data well, however, some parameters were estimated with limited accuracy. The resulting model was a good predictor for oscillatory and ramp input data.

Klein, Vladislav↗

Estimation of Longitudinal Unsteady Aerodynamics of a Wing-Tail Combination From Wind Tunnel Data

This paper presents an initial step toward model identification from wind tunnel data for an airliner configuration. Two approaches to modeling a transport configuration are considered and applied to both steady and large-amplitude forced-oscillation wind tunnel data taken over a wide range of angles of attack. Only limited conclusions could be drawn from this initial data set. Although model estimated time histories of normal force and pitching moment agree reasonably well with the corresponding measured values, model damping parameters did not, for some cases, have values consistent with small amplitude oscillatory data. In addition, large parameter standard errors implied poor information content for model structure determination and parameter estimation. Further investigation of the modeling problem for more general aerodynamic models is recommended with close attention to experiment design for obtaining parameters with high accuracy.

Murphy, Patrick C.↗

An analytic modeling and system identification study of rotor/fuselage dynamics at hover

A combination of analytic modeling and system identification methods have been used to develop an improved dynamic model describing the response of articulated rotor helicopters to control inputs. A high-order linearized model of coupled rotor/body dynamics including flap and lag degrees of freedom and inflow dynamics with literal coefficients is compared to flight test data from single rotor helicopters in the near hover trim condition. The identification problem was formulated using the maximum likelihood function in the time domain. The dynamic model with literal coefficients was used to generate the model states, and the model was parametrized in terms of physical constants of the aircraft rather than the stability derivatives resulting in a significant reduction in the number of quantities to be identified. The likelihood function was optimized using the genetic algorithm approach. This method proved highly effective in producing an estimated model from flight test data which included coupled fuselage/rotor dynamics. Using this approach it has been shown that blade flexibility is a significant contributing factor to the discrepancies between theory and experiment shown in previous studies. Addition of flexible modes, properly incorporating the constraint due to the lag dampers, results in excellent agreement between flight test and theory, especially in the high frequency range.

Hong, Steven W.↗

An analytic modeling and system identification study of rotor/fuselage dynamics at hover

A combination of analytic modeling and system identification methods have been used to develop an improved dynamic model describing the response of articulated rotor helicopters to control inputs. A high-order linearized model of coupled rotor/body dynamics including flap and lag degrees of freedom and inflow dynamics with literal coefficients is compared to flight test data from single rotor helicopters in the near hover trim condition. The identification problem was formulated using the maximum likelihood function in the time domain. The dynamic model with literal coefficients was used to generate the model states, and the model was parametrized in terms of physical constants of the aircraft rather than the stability derivatives, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of quantities to be identified. The likelihood function was optimized using the genetic algorithm approach. This method proved highly effective in producing an estimated model from flight test data which included coupled fuselage/rotor dynamics. Using this approach it has been shown that blade flexibility is a significant contributing factor to the discrepancies between theory and experiment shown in previous studies. Addition of flexible modes, properly incorporating the constraint due to the lag dampers, results in excellent agreement between flight test and theory, especially in the high frequency range.

Hong, Steven W.↗

Identification of Computational and Experimental Reduced-Order Models

The identification of computational and experimental reduced-order models (ROMs) for the analysis of unsteady aerodynamic responses and for efficient aeroelastic analyses is presented. For the identification of a computational aeroelastic ROM, the CFL3Dv6.0 computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is used. Flutter results for the AGARD 445.6 Wing and for a Rigid Semispan Model (RSM) computed using CFL3Dv6.0 are presented, including discussion of associated computational costs. Modal impulse responses of the unsteady aerodynamic system are computed using the CFL3Dv6.0 code and transformed into state-space form. The unsteady aerodynamic state-space ROM is then combined with a state-space model of the structure to create an aeroelastic simulation using the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The MATLAB/SIMULINK ROM is then used to rapidly compute aeroelastic transients, including flutter. The ROM shows excellent agreement with the aeroelastic analyses computed using the CFL3Dv6.0 code directly. For the identification of experimental unsteady pressure ROMs, results are presented for two configurations: the RSM and a Benchmark Supercritical Wing (BSCW). Both models were used to acquire unsteady pressure data due to pitching oscillations on the Oscillating Turntable (OTT) system at the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT). A deconvolution scheme involving a step input in pitch and the resultant step response in pressure, for several pressure transducers, is used to identify the unsteady pressure impulse responses. The identified impulse responses are then used to predict the pressure responses due to pitching oscillations at several frequencies. Comparisons with the experimental data are then presented.

Silva, Walter A.↗

Landslide Likelihood Prediction using Machine Learning Algorithms

The supply of electricity via power plants is criticalto the operation of many critical infrastructure systems in mod-ern society. Natural hazards can disrupt the power supply, causepower outages that can halt economic growth, and impede emer-gency response until power is restored. The proposed work aimsto predict the landslides likelihood in these critical infrastructurelocations in the Northeastern USA using integrated databases ofexplanatory variables and machine learning algorithms. First,data related to landslides are obtained and merged, includingtopographic, soil moisture, and precipitation-related data. Fiveregression algorithms, namely: Random Forest, Extreme Gradi-ent Boosting (XGBoost), K-Nearest Neighbor regression (KNN),Linear Support Vector Regressor (SVR), and Linear regression,are utilized to predict the landslide probability and evaluatedon the dataset. The accuracy of the models is assessed by usingstatistical metrics such as mean absolute error (MAE), meansquared error (MSE), and root mean squared error (RMSE).The study results show that Random Forest outperformed othermodels with the mutual information feature selection method.It achieved an MSE of 0.0011 with mutual information-basedfeature selection and an MSE of 0.00157 without feature selection.KNN regressor outperformed the other models with an MSEof 0.00139 with correlation-based information selection. Theproposed landslide identification model with Random Forestalgorithm shows outstanding robustness and great potential intackling the landslide likelihood prediction by employing MLalgorithms.

Vasundhara Acharya↗

Closed-Loop System Identification Experience for Flight Control Law and Flying Qualities Evaluation of a High Performance Fighter Aircraft

This paper highlights some of the results and issues associated with estimating models to evaluate control law design methods and design criteria for advanced high performance aircraft. Experimental fighter aircraft such as the NASA-High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) have the capability to maneuver at very high angles of attack where nonlinear aerodynamics often predominate. HARV is an experimental F/A-18, configured with thrust vectoring and conformal actuated nose strakes. Identifying closed-loop models for this type of aircraft can be made difficult by nonlinearities and high order characteristics of the system. In this paper, only lateral-directional axes are considered since the lateral-directional control law was specifically designed to produce classical airplane responses normally expected with low-order, rigid-body systems. Evaluation of the control design methodology was made using low-order equivalent systems determined from flight and simulation. This allowed comparison of the closed-loop rigid-body dynamics achieved in flight with that designed in simulation. In flight, the On Board Excitation System was used to apply optimal inputs to lateral stick and pedals at five angles at attack : 5, 20, 30, 45, and 60 degrees. Data analysis and closed-loop model identification were done using frequency domain maximum likelihood. The structure of identified models was a linear state-space model reflecting classical 4th-order airplane dynamics. Input time delays associated with the high-order controller and aircraft system were accounted for in data preprocessing. A comparison of flight estimated models with small perturbation linear design models highlighted nonlinearities in the system and indicated that the closed-loop rigid-body dynamics were sensitive to input amplitudes at 20 and 30 degrees angle of attack.

Murphy, Patrick C.↗

Closed-Loop System Identification Experience for Flight Control Law and Flying Qualities Evaluation of a High Performance Fighter Aircraft

This paper highlights some of the results and issues associated with estimating models to evaluate control law design methods and design criteria for advanced high performance aircraft. Experimental fighter aircraft such as the NASA High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) have the capability to maneuver at very high angles of attack where nonlinear aerodynamics often predominate. HARV is an experimental F/A-18, configured with thrust vectoring and conformal actuated nose strakes. Identifying closed-loop models for this type of aircraft can be made difficult by nonlinearities and high-order characteristics of the system. In this paper only lateral-directional axes are considered since the lateral-directional control law was specifically designed to produce classical airplane responses normally expected with low-order, rigid-body systems. Evaluation of the control design methodology was made using low-order equivalent systems determined from flight and simulation. This allowed comparison of the closed-loop rigid-body dynamics achieved in flight with that designed in simulation. In flight, the On Board Excitation System was used to apply optimal inputs to lateral stick and pedals at five angles of attack: 5, 20, 30, 45, and 60 degrees. Data analysis and closed-loop model identification were done using frequency domain maximum likelihood. The structure of the identified models was a linear state-space model reflecting classical 4th-order airplane dynamics. Input time delays associated with the high-order controller and aircraft system were accounted for in data preprocessing. A comparison of flight estimated models with small perturbation linear design models highlighted nonlinearities in the system and indicated that the estimated closed-loop rigid-body dynamics were sensitive to input amplitudes at 20 and 30 degrees angle of attack.

Murphy, Patrick C.↗

Experimental experience with flexible structures

The focus is on a flexible structure experiment developed at the California Institute of Technology. The main thrust of the experiment is to address the identification and robust control issues associated with large space structures by capturing their characteristics in the laboratory. The design, modeling, identification and control objectives will be discussed. Also, the subject of uncertainty in structural plant models and the frequency shaping of performance objectives will be expounded upon. Theoretical and experimental results of control laws designed using the identified model and uncertainty descriptions will be presented.

Balas, Gary J.↗

Space Shuttle flying qualities and flight control system assessment study, phase 2

A program of flying qualities experiments as part of the Orbiter Experiments Program (OEX) is defined. Phase 1, published as CR-170391, reviewed flying qualities criteria and shuttle data. The review of applicable experimental and shuttle data to further define the OEX plan is continued. An unconventional feature of this approach is the use of pilot strategy model identification to relate flight and simulator results. Instrumentation, software, and data analysis techniques for pilot model measurements are examined. The relationship between shuttle characteristics and superaugmented aircraft is established. STS flights 1 through 4 are reviewed from the point of view of flying qualities. A preliminary plan for a coordinated program of inflight and simulator research is presented.

Myers, T. T.↗

Theoretic aspects of the identification of the parameters in the optimal control model

The identification of the parameters of the optimal control model from input-output data of the human operator is considered. Accepting the basic structure of the model as a cascade of a full-order observer and a feedback law, and suppressing the inherent optimality of the human controller, the parameters to be identified are the feedback matrix, the observer gain matrix, and the intensity matrices of the observation noise and the motor noise. The identification of the parameters is a statistical problem, because the system and output are corrupted by noise, and therefore the solution must be based on the statistics (probability density function) of the input and output data of the human operator. However, based on the statistics of the input-output data of the human operator, no distinction can be made between the observation and the motor noise, which shows that the model suffers from overparameterization.

Vanwijk, R. A.↗

Control Activity in Support of NASA Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) Research

Control research for a Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) propulsion system is the current focus of the Hypersonic Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) discipline team. The ongoing work at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) supports the Hypersonic GN&C effort in developing tools to aid the design of control algorithms to manage a TBCC airbreathing propulsion system during a critical operating period. The critical operating period being addressed in this paper is the span when the propulsion system transitions from one cycle to another, referred to as mode transition. One such tool, that is a basic need for control system design activities, is computational models (hereto forth referred to as models) of the propulsion system. The models of interest for designing and testing controllers are Control Development Models (CDMs) and Control Validation Models (CVMs). CDMs and CVMs are needed for each of the following propulsion system elements: inlet, turbine engine, ram/scram dual-mode combustor, and nozzle. This paper presents an overall architecture for a TBCC propulsion system model that includes all of the propulsion system elements. Efforts are under way, focusing on one of the propulsion system elements, to develop CDMs and CVMs for a TBCC propulsion system inlet. The TBCC inlet aerodynamic design being modeled is that of the Combined-Cycle Engine (CCE) Testbed. The CCE Testbed is a large-scale model of an aerodynamic design that was verified in a small-scale screening experiment. The modeling approach includes employing existing state-of-the-art simulation codes, developing new dynamic simulations, and performing system identification experiments on the hardware in the NASA GRC 10 by10-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel. The developed CDMs and CVMs will be available for control studies prior to hardware buildup. The system identification experiments on the CCE Testbed will characterize the necessary dynamics to be represented in CDMs for control design. These system identification models will also be the reference models to validate the CDM and CVM models. Validated models will give value to the tools used to develop the models.

Stueber, Thomas J.↗

Toward Real Time Neural Net Flight Controllers

NASA Ames Research Center has an ongoing program in neural network control technology targeted toward real time flight demonstrations using a modified F-15 which permits direct inner loop control of actuators, rapid switching between alternative control designs, and substitutable processors. An important part of this program is the ACTIVE flight project which is examining the feasibility of using neural networks in the design, control, and system identification of new aircraft prototypes. This paper discusses two research applications initiated with this objective in mind: utilization of neural networks for wind tunnel aircraft model identification and rapid learning algorithms for on line reconfiguration and control. The first application involves the identification of aerodynamic flight characteristics from analysis of wind tunnel test data. This identification is important in the early stages of aircraft design because complete specification of control architecture's may not be possible even though concept models at varying scales are available for aerodynamic wind tunnel testing. Testing of this type is often a long and expensive process involving measurement of aircraft lift, drag, and moment of inertia at varying angles of attack and control surface configurations. This information in turn can be used in the design of the flight control systems by applying the derived lookup tables to generate piece wise linearized controllers. Thus, reduced costs in tunnel test times and the rapid transfer of wind tunnel insights into prototype controllers becomes an important factor in more efficient generation and testing of new flight systems. NASA Ames Research Center is successfully applying modular neural networks as one way of anticipating small scale aircraft model performances prior to testing, thus reducing the number of in tunnel test hours and potentially, the number of intermediate scaled models required for estimation of surface flow effects.

Jorgensen, C. C.↗