Real-time expert systems for advanced power control (a statusupdate) [aerospace power system testbed]

The most recent developments in the Boeing Aerospace Autonomous Power System (APS) testbed are presented. The APS testbed is a 28-VDC system with 3-kW capability, assembled for use in developing improved control, techniques for aerospace electrical power systems. The main emphasis is on the development of a sophisticated programming environment to control concurrent execution of multiple autonomous algorithms coupled with a continuous input/output data flow. The integration of high-level control algorithms used for battery charge control into a real-time execution environment is discussed. This includes methods that allow several functions to respond to real-time input, affect/maintain expert system (shared) memory, and control the electrical power system configuration. Sophisticated schemes for scheduling these expert system control functions are required to allow real-time multitasking     

Flow control: new challenges for a new Renaissance

As traditional scientific disciplines individually grow towards their maturity, many new opportunities for significant advances lie at their intersection. For example, remarkable developments in control theory in the last few decades have considerably expanded the selection of available tools which may be applied to regulate physical and electrical systems. These techniques hold great promise for several applications in fluid mechanics, including the delay of transition and the regulation of turbulence. Such applications of control theory require a very balanced perspective, in which one considers the relevant flow physics when designing the control algorithms and, conversely, takes into account the requirements and limitations of control algorithms when designing both reduced-order flow models and the fluid–mechanical systems to be controlled themselves. Such a balanced perspective is elusive, however, as both the research establishment in general and universities in particular are accustomed only to the dissemination and teaching of component technologies in isolated fields. To advance, we must not toss substantial new interdisciplinary questions over the fence for fear of them being “outside our area”; rather, we must break down these very fences that limit us, and attack these challenging new questions with a Renaissance approach. In this spirit, this paper surveys a few recent attempts at bridging the gaps between the several scientific disciplines comprising the field of flow control, in an attempt to clarify the author's perspective on how recent advances in these constituent disciplines fit together in a manner that opens up significant new research opportunities.     

Concerns about Hash Cracking Aftereffect on Authentication Procedures in Applications of Cyberspace

In the Crypto 2004 Conference (Wang et al., 2004), one of the big news was that a fundamental technique in cryptography - one of the hash algorithms, Message Digest 5 (MD5) had been cracked. Soon after this event, it was announced that the secure hash algorithm (SHA-1) had been cracked as well. This series of information shocked the researches in the field of cryptography, and raised the attention of every related organization of security application mechanisms. Most agencies are still looking into the impact this may have, and are considering their future responses and solutions in the wake of these developments in the hash structure of cryptanalysis. Based on this information, this paper will discuss in detail the broken MD5 and SHA-1, which both are reported to have been cracked, and will investigate any impact, and propose recommendations for the applications in cyber-space, such as password authentication and forensic software, when using a hash algorithm     

High speed plastic networks (HSPN): a new technology for today'sapplications

Decades ago, glass fiber promised to be the future of communications offering large bandwidth, low attenuation, and electromagnetic compatibility. For the long haul applications, this promise has been fulfilled. Today, glass fibers have yielded simple, reliable, and economic means of communicating worldwide. However, when it comes to shorter distances and rugged environments, glass fiber optics has not been the answer. Unforeseen rapid developments in software and display technology have enabled communications in the form of multimedia, E-mail, web pages, and video conferencing. These developments are pushing data rates higher and higher in application environments that are more severe, uncontrolled and require shorter connected intensive links. To achieve desired data rates and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) using copper systems, shielded cable and connectors or parallel links are necessary, driving up cost and complexity. Glass fiber optic systems provide more than adequate bandwidth and superior EMC but cannot offer a cost effective, robust, user-friendly system. Recent developments have poised plastic optical fiber (POF) to fill the physical layer gap. This paper will discuss the recent developments in plastic fiber including appropriate application space, types of plastic optical fiber, ARPA-funded HSPN team, and recent POF developments     

Recent experience with different methods of drag prediction

During the recent past the process of engineering design has changed entirely because of rapid developments in computational simulations. In aerodynamic design, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods are slowly superseding empirical methods and design engineers are spending more and more time applying CFD tools to analyze and predict the aerodynamic characteristics of vehicles. The purpose of this paper is to review recent experiences in CFD-based drag prediction with an emphasis on flow solutions governed by the Euler and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. For these types of flow solutions, various drag analysis methodologies are outlined and applied to determine the drag of components of as well as whole-body airplanes, helicopters, and ground-based vehicles at subsonic and transonic flow conditions. The review demonstrates that although significant progress has been made, CFD-based drag prediction still faces a number of hurdles that must be dealt with before it will become more widely accepted.     

新能源电动飞机发展与挑战

发展绿色航空是人类社会形成的基本共识,新能源电动飞机为实现彻底的绿色航空提供了一条光明的技术途径。简述了航空对环境的影响、电在飞机上的应用及电动飞机的发展历程,对新能源电动飞机的能源分类、电推进系统及其总体效率进行了研究,重点针对载人轻型运动飞机,分析了电动飞机的发展现状、特征以及能源需求,通过对电池作为能源的载人电动飞机的航程和极限航程研究,提出了电池能量密度提升和性能改进、高升阻比空气动力设计、低成本轻质高效复合材料结构设计与制造、高效率电推进系统设计与集成等电动飞机发展面临的挑战,给出了应大力发展电动飞机的建议和本领域未来的研究方向。     

International Space Station power storage upgrade planned

As the Earth-orbit International Space Station (ISS) grows, it needs more power which is generated by solar panels. For periods in which the planet Earth occults sunlight, energy is stored in the biggest set of batteries ever flown in space. Reliability of power is important in a space station because a failure requires costly launch of replacement components. Even greater importance results when astronauts work in the station. A power failure that causes the astronauts to perish would be a very serious event. The first battery-containing "integrated equipment module" was launched November 30, 2000 and installed on port 6 of the International Space Station. Two more modules will be launched by the United States; to be launched in 2004 is the European Space Agency's "attached COLUMBUS APM laboratory," which will have its own power system. Unexpected battery-related events occurred in the integrated equipment module during its first year-and-a-half in orbit. The problems and their solutions were described in papers presented at the 37/sup th/ Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference. Since the International Space Station carries more battery cells than any other spacecraft, the in-flight performance data from its battery assembly can be useful to engineers who design power supplies for other spacecraft. We, therefore, summarize the battery development process, the adopted design, and an unexpected in-flight battery degradation and its correction.     

Battery charge controller characteristics in photovoltaic systems

Typical strategies for battery charge regulation and load control in stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems are presented. Several charge algorithms (methods of controlling current to the battery) are presented, along with terminology used by the PV industry for battery charge controllers. Information gained from an extensive evaluation of commercially available charge controllers and data collected from tests on PV systems in the field are discussed. An overview of battery performance characteristics needed for the successful design and long-term operation of PV systems is presented with the intent of soliciting feedback on the information presented from the battery industry     

A maintenance-free lead acid battery for inertial navigationsystems aircraft

Historically, aircraft inertial navigation system (INS) batteries have utilized vented nickel-cadmium batteries for emergency DC power. The United States Navy and Air Force developed separate systems during their respective INS developments. The Navy contracted with Litton industries to produce the LTN-72 and Air Force contracted with Delco to produce the Carousel IV INS for the large cargo and specialty aircraft applications, over the years, a total of eight different battery national stock numbers (NSNs) have entered the stock system along with 75 battery spare part NSNs. The standard hardware acquisition and reliability program is working with the Aircraft Battery Group at Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, Naval Air Systems Command (AIR 536), Wright Laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Concorde Battery Corporation to produce a standard INS battery. This paper discusses the approach taken to determine whether the battery should be replaced and to select the replacement chemistry. The paper also discusses the battery requirements, aircraft that the battery is compatible with, and status of Navy flight evaluation. Projected savings in avoided maintenance in Navy and Air Force INS systems is projected to be $14.7 million per year with a manpower reduction of 153 maintenance personnel. The new INS battery is compatible with commercially sold INS systems which represents 66% of the systems sold     

Data path synthesis in digital electronics. II. Bus synthesis

For pt. I see ibid., vol. 32, no. 1, p. 1-15 (1996). Common buses are an extremely efficient structure for achieving area minimization so that the bus-oriented interconnection of registers and data operators plays an important role in data path synthesis. The overriding design goal is efficiently allocating the minimum number of buses and gating elements (i.e. multiplexers) for achieving communication between the data path elements. New efficient algorithms for the automated allocation of buses in data paths have been developed. The entire allocation process can be formulated as a graph partitioning problem. This formulation readily lends itself to the use of a varieties of heuristics for solving the allocation problem We present efficient algorithms which provide excellent solutions to this formulation of the allocation problem The operation of the algorithms is clearly demonstrated using detailed examples     

New battery types for space vehicles

Engineers from all over the world came to discuss their new developments at the 36^th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC), held in Savannah, Georgia, USA, July 30 through August 2, 2001. Twenty battery presentations covered topics ranging from powering instruments in oil-well boreholes to supplying energy to instruments on the surface of Mars. Important developments in aerospace batteries are summarized in this article     

A microcontroller-based intelligent battery system

State-of-charge indication for a secondary battery is becoming increasingly important for battery-operated electronics. Consumers are demanding fast charging times, increased battery lifetime, and fuel gauge capabilities. All of these demands require that the state of charge within a battery be known. One of the simplest methods employed to determine state of charge is to monitor the voltage of the battery. However, this method alone is not a good indicator of battery energy, since both NiMH and NiCd batteries have voltage-versus-energy curves that are essentially flat. This paper presents a more effective method of determining the state of charge in secondary cell batteries. A NiMH battery is used as our test vehicle, since it is one of the more difficult batteries to determine state of charge. This method monitors the battery's temperature, voltage, and discharge/charge rate. A microcontroller then manipulates the information, using look-up tables to determine the state of charge. Also, by modifying the look-up tables, this technique can be employed in many other battery technologies and is not limited to NiMH     

A quantum inspired genetic algorithm for multimodal optimization of wind disturbance alleviation flight control system

This paper develops a Quantum-inspired Genetic Algorithm (QGA) to find the sets of optimal parameters for the wind disturbance alleviation Flight Control System (FCS). To search the problem domain more evenly and uniformly, the lattice rule based stratification method is used to create new chromosomes. The chromosomes are coded and updated according to quantum-inspired strategies. A niching method is used to ensure every chromosome can converge to its corresponding local minimum in the optimization process. A parallel archive system is adopted to monitor the chromosomes on-line and save all potential feasible solutions in the optimization process. An adaptive search strategy is used to gradually adjust the search domain of each niche to finally approach the local minima. The solutions found by the QGA are compared with some other Multimodal Optimization (MO) algorithms and are tested on the FCS of the Boeing 747 to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

The Hy-StorTM battery

The Hy-Stor^TM Battery is a rechargeable battery being developed for electric vehicles and other large battery applications. The battery combines the high energy storage capability of metal hydride alloys with the high cycle life and discharge rate capabilities of nickel-hydrogen cells. It is a hybrid battery concept that offers potential performance, economic and safety advantages over other large battery technologies. Very recent developments indicate that much smaller batteries can also be produced to meet the needs of the portable computer and other portable electronic device markets. Initial tests demonstrated the ability of a metal hydride storage system to achieve high cycle life when absorbing hydrogen that was saturated with battery electrolyte solution and then passed through a purifier. Based on positive test results, a patent for the Hy-Stor battery was applied for and granted     

Progress in battery technology since the first CSULB annual batteryconference and prospects for the future

Significant advances in and applications of battery technology are outlined. Factors driving future developments are identified     

Gravity modeling in aerospace applications

The science of inertial navigation has evolved to the point that the traditional gravity model is a principal error source in advanced, precise systems. Specifically, the unmodeled vertical deflections of the earth's gravitational field are a major contributor to CEP (circular error probable) divergence in precise terrestrial inertial navigation systems (INS). Over the years, several studies have been undertaken to the development of advanced techniques for accurate, real-time compensation of gravity disturbance vectors. More complex on-board gravity models which compute vertical deflection components will reduce the CEP divergence rate, but imperfect modeling due to on-board processing limitations will still cause residual vertical deflection errors. In order to eliminate or reduce gravity-induced errors in the INS requires measurement of gravity disturbance values and in-flight compensation to the inertial navigator. It is assumed in this paper that gravity disturbance values have been measured prior to the airborne mission and various techniques for compensation are to be considered. As part of a screening process in this study, several gravity compensation techniques (both deterministic and stochastic models) were investigated. The screening process involved identification of gravity models and algorithms, and developments of selection criteria for subsequent screening of the candidates.     

The aerodynamic design of multi-element high-lift systems for transport airplanes

High-lift systems have a major influence on the sizing, economics, and safety of most transport airplane configurations. The combination of complexity in flow physics, geometry, and system support and actuation has historically led to a lengthy and experiment intensive development process. However, during the recent past engineering design has changed significantly as a result of rapid developments in computational hardware and software. In aerodynamic design, computational methods are slowly superseding empirical methods and design engineers are spending more and more time applying computational tools instead of conducting physical experiments to design and analyze aircraft including their high-lift systems. The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments in aerodynamic design and analysis methods for multi-element high-lift systems on transport airplanes. Attention is also paid to the associated mechanical and cost problems since a multi-element high-lift system must be as simple and economical as possible while meeting the required aerodynamic performance levels.     

Application of multi-objective optimization to axial compressor preliminary design

The axial compressor is one of the most challenging components for aero engine design. The highly complex and multi-disciplinary design process is built up from several separate design phases differing with respect to the number of details. Typically, meanline prediction is the first step of the aerodynamic design process where the goal is to provide a first guess and proper choice of basic design parameters. As a preliminary design procedure it is one of the most important parts of the compressor design process since a poor design decision on these parameters cannot be corrected by subsequent development efforts. The design of a compressor is always a compromise between contradicting requirements like high efficiency, low number of stages and high surge margin. This is typical for multi-criterion optimization problems requiring a high number of design analyses and a well-designed procedure for finding trade-off solutions. The paper will show how to automate a given Rolls-Royce preliminary design process in order to find Pareto-optimal trade-off solutions for design conditions. The aspect of process acceleration is also an important goal to release the design engineer from time-consuming parameter studies. Essential elements for speeding up the design process are the use of modern process integration tools, multi-criterion decision concepts, and nonlinear programming algorithms. Results will be shown based on a given Rolls-Royce compressor design for multi-objective optimization with respect to maximum efficiency, maximum surge margin, and maximum overall pressure ratio, where different deterministic and stochastic algorithms are used.     

On the exact solutions of pseudorange equations

Three formulations of exact solution algorithms to the system of determined pseudorange equations are derived. It is demonstrated that pseudorange equations are hyperbolic in nature and may have two solutions, even when the emitter configuration is nonsingular. Conditions for uniqueness and for the existence of multiple solutions are derived in terms of the Lorentz inner product. The bifurcation parameter for systems of pseudorange equations is also expressed in term of the Lorentz functional. The solution is expressed as a product of the geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) matrix, representing the linear part of the solution, and a vector of nonlinear term. Using this formulation stability of solutions is discussed     

针对超临界翼型气动修型策略的强化学习

强化学习是一类用于学习策略的机器学习方法,通过模拟人的学习过程,与所处环境不断交互来学习动作策略,用以获得最大累积回报。以设计师在翼型气动设计中的增量修型过程为例,给出强化学习在气动优化设计中的要素定义和具体算法的实现。研究了预训练中选择不同示例对预训练和强化学习结果的影响,并将强化学习得到的策略模型在其他环境中进行了迁移测试验证。结果表明,合理的预训练能够有效提高强化学习的效率和最终策略的鲁棒性,且所形成的策略模型具有较好的迁移能力。