Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “feedback control”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Integrated Model Reduction and Control of Aircraft with Flexible Wings

This paper presents an integrated approach to the modeling and control of aircraft with exible wings. The coupled aircraft rigid body dynamics with a high-order elastic wing model can be represented in a nite dimensional state-space form. Given a set of desired output covariance, a model reduction process is performed by using the weighted Modal Cost Analysis (MCA). A dynamic output feedback controller, which is designed based on the reduced-order model, is developed by utilizing output covariance constraint (OCC) algorithm, and the resulting OCC design weighting matrix is used for the next iteration of the weighted cost analysis. This controller is then validated for full-order evaluation model to ensure that the aircraft's handling qualities are met and the uttering motion of the wings suppressed. An iterative algorithm is developed in CONDUIT environment to realize the integration of model reduction and controller design. The proposed integrated approach is applied to NASA Generic Transport Model (GTM) for demonstration.

AEROELASTIC↗
NASA NTRS1985

Numerical and experimental evaluation for single-axis control of an LSS laboratory model

One of the major problems of LSS attitude control design stems from the modeling uncertainties due to modal truncation errors and modal parameter estimation errors. This modeling problem is investigated by evaluating poles and zeros of the frequency response functions, described in terms of constrained or unconstrained modes. The frequency domain approach is utilized to evaluated the results of modal analyses and direct output feedback controller experiments using a simple flexible spacecraft model consisting of a rigid primary body and flexible aluminum beam(s) with a control moment gyro as an actuator. The modal data are compared under the conditions that the model is constrained as the canti-lever and it is rotationally free on a single-axis air bearing table. In addition, the open-loop responses are experimentally examined under the impulsive disturbance to the appendage. The results of the control experiments show that the first vibration mode of the appendage and the interacted rotational motion of the primary body are damped in a short time as predicted by the numerical analysis, to produce damping ratio of 10-20%.

Ohkami, Y.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Large-scale systems - Stability, complexity, reliability

This paper establishes the connective stability concept in the framework of the comparison principle and vector Liapunov functions, as a natural setting for resolving the complexity vs reliability problem in the control of large-scale dynamic systems. The central result is the following: a stable complex system when composed as a competitive structure of the interconnected stable subsystems remains stable despite the on-off participation of the subsystems. This result is important in that it can be used efficiently to synthesize reliable complex systems by multilevel feedback control.

Siljak, D. D.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Numerical investigation of the control of the secondary instability process in boundary layers

A numerical model has been developed for investigating boundary layer transition control for a flat plate boundary layer. Active control of a periodically forced boundary layer in an incompressible fluid is studied using surface heating techniques. The spatially evolving boundary layer is simulated. The Navier-Stokes and energy equations are integrated using a fully implicit finite difference/spectral method. Temperature perturbations are introduced locally along finite heater strips to directly attenuate the instability waves in the flow. A feedback control loop is employed in which a downstream sensor is used to monitor wall shear stress fluctuations. Active control of small amplitude two-dimensional and three-dimensional disturbances is numerically simulated. With proper phase control, in-phase reinforcement and out-of-phase attenuation are demonstrated. A receptivity study of the localized temperature perturbations is made. It is shown that narrow heater strips are more receptive in that they maximize the amplitude level of the disturbances in the flow. Active control of the early stages of the fundamental breakdown process is also numerically simulated. Control is achieved with either two-dimensional or three-dimensional control inputs.

Kral, L. D.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Piezoelectric pushers for active vibration control of rotating machinery

The active control of rotordynamic vibrations and stability by magnetic bearings and electromagnetic shakers was discussed extensively in the literature. These devices, though effective, are usually large in volume and add significant weight to the stator. The use of piezoelectric pushers may provide similar degrees of effectiveness in light, compact packages. Analyses are contained which extend quadratic regulator, pole placement and derivative feedback control methods to the prescribed displacement character of piezoelectric pushers. The structural stiffness of the pusher is also included in the theory. Tests are currently being conducted at NASA Lewis Research Center with piezoelectric pusher-based active vibration control. Results performed on the NASA test rig as preliminary verification of the related theory are presented.

Palazzolo, A. B.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Gamma guidance of trajectories for coplanar, aeroassisted orbital transfer

The optimization and guidance of trajectories for coplaner, aeroassisted orbital transfer (AOT) from high Earth orbit (HEO) to low Earth orbit (LEO) are examined. In particular, HEO can be a geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO). It is assumed that the initial and final orbits are circular, that the gravitational field is central and is governed by the inverse square law, and that at most three impulses are employed: one at HEO exit, one at atmospheric exit, and one at LEO entry. It is also assumed that, during the atmospheric pass, the trajectory is controlled via the lift coefficient. The presence of upper and lower bounds on the lift coefficient is considered. First, optimal trajectories are computed by minimizing the total velocity impulse (hence, the propellant consumption) required for AOT transfer. The sequential gradient-restoration algorithm (SGRA) is used for optimal control problems. The optimal trajectory is shown to include two branches: a relatively short descending flight branch (branch 1) and a long ascending flight branch (branch 2). Next, attention is focused on guidance trajectories capable of approximating the optimal trajectories in real time, while retaining the essential characteristics of simplicity, ease of implementation, and reliability. For the atmospheric pass, a feedback control scheme is employed and the lift coefficient is adjusted according to a two-stage gamma guidance law. Further improvements are possible via a modified gamma guidance which is more stable with respect to dispersion effects arising from navigation errors, variations of the atmospheric density, and uncertainties in the aerodynamic coefficients than gamma guidance trajectory. A byproduct of the studies on dispersion effects is the following design concept. For coplaner aeroassisted orbital transfer, the lift-range-to-weight ratio appears to play a more important role than the lift-to-drag ratio. This is because the lift-range-to-weight ratio controls mainly the minimum altitude (hence, the peak heating rate) of the guidance trajectory; on the other hand, the lift-to-drag ratio controls mainly the duration of the atmospheric pass of the guidance trajectory.

Miele, A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Extended implicit model following as applied to integrated flight and propulsion control

An extended model-following control-synthesis method, including loop-transfer recovery, is presented and applied to synthesize control laws for integrated flight and propulsion control (IFPC). The vehicle considered is representative of an unstable modern fighter aircraft; with a two-dimensional thrust-vectoring and thrust-reversing nozzle. The linearized design model includes both airframe and engine dynamics. A model-following formulation of the LQR problem is extended to handle this hybrid problem. Compensators are then obtained to realize an output-feedback control law, by using a loop-transfer-recovery procedure. The airframe and engine responses are decoupled, and perfect airframe response following is obtained. The loop transfers also reveal good stability robustness and reasonable loop cross-over frequencies that would not lead to excessive actuation requirements.

Schmidt, David K.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Optical Communications Link to Airborne Transceiver

An optical link from Earth to an aircraft demonstrates the ability to establish a link from a ground platform to a transceiver moving overhead. An airplane has a challenging disturbance environment including airframe vibrations and occasional abrupt changes in attitude during flight. These disturbances make it difficult to maintain pointing lock in an optical transceiver in an airplane. Acquisition can also be challenging. In the case of the aircraft link, the ground station initially has no precise knowledge of the aircraft s location. An airborne pointing system has been designed, built, and demonstrated using direct-drive brushless DC motors for passive isolation of pointing disturbances and for high-bandwidth control feedback. The airborne transceiver uses a GPS-INS system to determine the aircraft s position and attitude, and to then illuminate the ground station initially for acquisition. The ground transceiver participates in link-pointing acquisition by first using a wide-field camera to detect initial illumination from the airborne beacon, and to perform coarse pointing. It then transfers control to a high-precision pointing detector. Using this scheme, live video was successfully streamed from the ground to the aircraft at 270 Mb/s while simultaneously downlinking a 50 kb/s data stream from the aircraft to the ground.

Regehr, Martin W.↗
NASA NTRS1989

A planar comparison of actuators for vibration control of flexible structures

The methods and results of an analytical study comparing the effectiveness of four actuators in damping the vibrations of a planar clamped-free beam are presented. The actuators studied are two inertia-type actuators, the proof mass and reaction wheel, and two variable geometry trusses, the planar truss and the planar truss proof mass (a combination variable geometry truss/inertia-type actuator). Actuator parameters used in the models were chosen based on the results of a parametric study. A full-state, LQR optimal feedback control law was used for control in each system. Numerical simulations of each beam/actuator system were performed in response to initial condition inputs. These simulations provided information such as time response of the closed-loop system and damping provided to the beam. This information can be used to determine the 'best' actuator for a given purpose.

Clark, William W.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Frequency-shaped large-angle maneuvers

The paper considers the problem of maneuvering a flexible spacecraft through large angles in finite time. The basic control problem is divided into two parts. The first part consists of generating a frequency-shaped open-loop solution for the nonlinear rigid body as the nominal solution. The resulting two-point boundary-value problem is solved by introducing a continuation method for altering the mass distribution and boundary conditions for the spacecraft. For the second part, a feedback control is designed by linearizing the flexible body response about several points along the rigid body nominal solution. The perturbation gains are designed by using a frequency-shaped cost functional approach. The gains are linearly interpolated to produce smooth control time-histories as the linear piecewise constant plant models change during the maneuver.

Chun, Hon M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Aerodynamic flight control to increase payload capability of future launch vehicles

In this report, we provide some examples of French, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese launch vehicles that have utilized fins in their designs. Next, the aerodynamic design of the fins is considered in Section 3. Some comments on basic static stability and control theory are followed by a brief description of an aerodynamic characteristics prediction code that was used to estimate the characteristics of a modified NLS 1.5 Stage vehicle. Alternative fin designs are proposed and some estimated aerodynamic characteristics presented and discussed. Also included in Section 3 is a discussion of possible methods of enhancement of the aerodynamic efficiency of fins, such as vortex generators and jet flaps. We consider the construction of fins for launch vehicles in Section 4 and offer an assessment of the state-of-the-art in the use of composites for aerodynamic control surfaces on high speed vehicles. We also comment on the use of smart materials for launch vehicle fins. The dynamic stability and control of a launch vehicle that utilizes both thrust vector control (engine nozzle gimballing) and movable fins is the subject addressed in Section 5. We give a short derivation of equations of motion for a launch vehicle moving in a vertical plane above a spherical earth, discuss the use of a gravity-turn nominal trajectory, and give the form of the period equations linearized about such a nominal. We then consider feedback control of vehicle attitude using both engine gimballing and fin deflection. Conclusions are stated and recommendations made in Section 6. An appendix contains aerodynamic data in tabular and graphical formats.

Cochran, John E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Adaptive piezoelectric sensoriactuator

An adaptive algorithm implemented in digital or analog form is used in conjunction with a voltage controlled amplifier to compensate for the feedthrough capacitance of piezoelectric sensoriactuator. The mechanical response of the piezoelectric sensoriactuator is resolved from the electrical response by adaptively altering the gain imposed on the electrical circuit used for compensation. For wideband, stochastic input disturbances, the feedthrough capacitance of the sensoriactuator can be identified on-line, providing a means of implementing direct-rate-feedback control in analog hardware. The device is capable of on-line system health monitoring since a quasi-stable dynamic capacitance is indicative of sustained health of the piezoelectric element.

Clark, Jr., Robert L.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Control of large flexible space structures using pole placement design techniques

A design approach via the pole placement techniques for the class of large flexible space structures is developed. The numerical problems in pole placement algorithm, arising from large dimension systems and the extremely low frequency eigenvalues which occur in large space structure models are examined. It shows these numerical difficulties may be overcome by properly selecting the sensor/actuator locations and introducing a frequency scaling scheme. The concepts of this paper are illustrated by some numerical studies on the linear feedback control design of a representative large spacecraft consisting of a small rigid core with ten radial booms (five booms 1000 ft long and five shorter booms 700 ft long) lying in a plane.

Wu, Y. W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Robust stability of second-order systems

This progress report gives current progress of the research in nonlinear robust control using positive real concept. The progress is documented in a draft paper. In the paper, the manipulator dynamics is reformulated differently from the existing equations of motion for free base robots. This new formulation gives a compact form of the dynamic equations for easy computation. The nonlinear terms are now considered. The results show that for an additional nonlinear friction term, the feedback controller designed using passivity concept works quite well. Although design of such a controller requires simulation of the dynamics for the example shown in the following draft, this design procedure is feasible.

Chuang, C.-H.↗
NASA NTRS1995

The coupling of fluids, dynamics, and controls on advanced architecture computers

This grant provided for the demonstration of coupled controls, body dynamics, and fluids computations in a workstation cluster environment; and an investigation of the impact of peer-peer communication on flow solver performance and robustness. The findings of these investigations were documented in the conference articles.The attached publication, 'Towards Distributed Fluids/Controls Simulations', documents the solution and scaling of the coupled Navier-Stokes, Euler rigid-body dynamics, and state feedback control equations for a two-dimensional canard-wing. The poor scaling shown was due to serialized grid connectivity computation and Ethernet bandwidth limits. The scaling of a peer-to-peer communication flow code on an IBM SP-2 was also shown. The scaling of the code on the switched fabric-linked nodes was good, with a 2.4 percent loss due to communication of intergrid boundary point information. The code performance on 30 worker nodes was 1.7 (mu)s/point/iteration, or a factor of three over a Cray C-90 head. The attached paper, 'Nonlinear Fluid Computations in a Distributed Environment', documents the effect of several computational rate enhancing methods on convergence. For the cases shown, the highest throughput was achieved using boundary updates at each step, with the manager process performing communication tasks only. Constrained domain decomposition of the implicit fluid equations did not degrade the convergence rate or final solution. The scaling of a coupled body/fluid dynamics problem on an Ethernet-linked cluster was also shown.

Atwood, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS1993

Planar reorientation of a free-free beam in space using embedded electromechanical actuators

It is demonstrated that the planar reorientation of a free-free beam in zero gravity space can be accomplished by periodically changing the shape of the beam using embedded electromechanical actuators. The dynamics which determine the shape of the free-free beam is assumed to be characterized by the Euler-Bernoulli equation, including material damping, with appropriate boundary conditions. The coupling between the rigid body motion and the flexible motion is explained using the angular momentum expression which includes rotatory inertia and kinematically exact effects. A control scheme is proposed where the embedded actuators excite the flexible motion of the beam so that it rotates in the desired sense with respect to a fixed inertial reference. Relations are derived which relate the average rotation rate to the amplitudes and the frequencies of the periodic actuation signal and the properties of the beam. These reorientation maneuvers can be implemented by using feedback control.

Kolmanovsky, Ilya V.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Control Code for Bearingless Switched-Reluctance Motor

A computer program has been devised for controlling a machine that is an integral combination of magnetic bearings and a switched-reluctance motor. The motor contains an eight-pole stator and a hybrid rotor, which has both (1) a circular lamination stack for levitation and (2) a six-pole lamination stack for rotation. The program computes drive and levitation currents for the stator windings with real-time feedback control. During normal operation, two of the four pairs of opposing stator poles (each pair at right angles to the other pair) levitate the rotor. The remaining two pairs of stator poles exert torque on the six-pole rotor lamination stack to produce rotation. This version is executable in a control-loop time of 40 s on a Pentium (or equivalent) processor that operates at a clock speed of 400 MHz. The program can be expanded, by addition of logic blocks, to enable control of position along additional axes. The code enables adjustment of operational parameters (e.g., motor speed and stiffness, and damping parameters of magnetic bearings) through computer keyboard key presses.

Morrison, Carlos R.↗
NASA NTRS2015

LMI-Based Multiobjective Optimization and Control of Flexible Aircraft Using VCCTEF

This paper considers the control of coupled aeroelastic aircraft model with Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flap (VCCTEF) system. The relative motion between two adjacent flaps is constrained and this actuation constraint problem is converted into an output covariance constraint problem, and therefore can be formulated using linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A set of LMI conditions is derived for the design of an observer-based dynamic output feedback controller for VCCTEF configured aeroelastic aircraft model. The proposed controller is then applied to the NASA Generic Transport Model (GTM) for simulation, and the results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.

LMI control↗