Adaptive Gaussian sum squared-root cubature Kalman filter with split-merge scheme for state estimation

The paper deals with state estimation problem of nonlinear non-Gaussian discrete dynamic systems for improvement of accuracy and consistency. An efficient new algorithm called the adaptive Gaussian-sum square-root cubature Kalman filter（AGSSCKF） with a split-merge scheme is proposed. It is developed based on the squared-root extension of newly introduced cubature Kalman filter（SCKF） and is built within a Gaussian-sum framework. Based on the condition that the probability density functions of process noises and initial state are denoted by a Gaussian sum using optimization method, a bank of SCKF are used as the sub-filters to estimate state of system with the corresponding weights respectively, which is adaptively updated. The new algorithm consists of an adaptive splitting and merging procedure according to a proposed split-decision model based on the nonlinearity degree of measurement. The results of two simulation scenarios（one-dimensional state estimation and bearings-only tracking） show that the proposed filter demonstrates comparable performance to the particle filter with significantly reduced computational cost.     

Recent advance in nonlinear aeroelastic analysis and control of the aircraft

A review on the recent advance in nonlinear aeroelasticity of the aircraft is presented in this paper. The nonlinear aeroelastic problems are divided into three types based on different research objects, namely the two dimensional airfoil, the wing, and the full aircraft. Different non- linearities encountered in aeroelastic systems are discussed firstly, where the emphases is placed on new nonlinear model to describe tested nonlinear relationship. Research techniques, especially new theoretical methods and aeroelastic flutter control methods are investigated in detail. The route to chaos and the cause of chaotic motion of two-dimensional aeroelastic system are summarized. Var- ious structural modeling methods for the high-aspect-ratio wing with geometric nonlinearity are dis- cussed. Accordingly, aerodynamic modeling approaches have been developed for the aeroelastic modeling of nonlinear high-aspect-ratio wings. Nonlinear aeroelasticity about high-altitude long- endurance （HALE） and fight aircrafts are studied separately. Finally, conclusions and the chal- lenges of the development in nonlinear aeroelasticity are concluded. Nonlinear aeroelastic problems of morphing wing, energy harvesting, and flapping aircrafts are proposed as new directions in the future.     

Adaptive block dynamic surface control for integrated missile guidance and autopilot

A novel integrated guidance and autopilot design method is proposed for homing missiles based on the adaptive block dynamic surface control approach. The fully integrated guidance and autopilot model is established by combining the nonlinear missile dynamics with the nonlinear dynamics describing the pursuit situation of a missile and a target in the three-dimensional space. The integrated guidance and autopilot design problem is further converted to a state regulation problem of a time-varying nonlinear system with matched and unmatched uncertainties. A new and simple adaptive block dynamic surface control algorithm is proposed to address such a state regulation problem. The stability of the closed-loop system is proven based on the Lyapunov theory. The six degrees of freedom (6DOF) nonlinear numerical simulation results show that the proposed integrated guidance and autopilot algorithm can ensure the accuracy of target interception and the robust stability of the closed-loop system with respect to the uncertainties in the missile dynamics.     

PREDICTIVE VARIABLE STRUCTURE CONTROL FOR A CLASS OF NONLINEAR SYSTEM

Nonlinear sliding mode predictive controller is designed for a class of nonlinear system with unmodeled dynamic characteristics and nonlinear term. The method is based on nonlinear optimal predictive control. The variable structure control law minimizes the quadratic index of a predictive sliding mode, which contains the cost function of control preventing the control effect from saturation for in most practical implementation the control inputs are bounded by physical constraints and energy constraints. According to the immeasurable states, the variable structure observer for nonlinear systems is adapted. The variable structure system method is apt to the realization of observer with variable parameters and uncertainty. The proof shows that the states of the observer asymptotically convergence to the real states of the system although it is of uncertainty and nonlinear terms. Finally, the digital simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Fuzzy adaptive robust control for space robot considering the effect of the gravity

Space robot is assembled and tested in gravity environment, and completes on-orbit service（OOS） in microgravity environment. The kinematic and dynamic characteristic of the robot will change with the variations of gravity in different working condition. Fully considering the change of kinematic and dynamic models caused by the change of gravity environment, a fuzzy adaptive robust control（FARC） strategy which is adaptive to these model variations is put forward for trajectory tracking control of space robot. A fuzzy algorithm is employed to approximate the nonlinear uncertainties in the model, adaptive laws of the parameters are constructed, and the approximation error is compensated by using a robust control algorithm. The stability of the control system is guaranteed based on the Lyapunov theory and the trajectory tracking control simulation is performed. The simulation results are compared with the proportional plus derivative（PD） controller, and the effectiveness to achieve better trajectory tracking performance under different gravity environment without changing the control parameters and the advantage of the proposed controller are verified.     

Fuzzy adaptive tracking control within the full envelope for an unmanned aerial vehicle

Motivated by the autopilot of an unmanned aerial vehicle（UAV） with a wide flight envelope span experiencing large parametric variations in the presence of uncertainties, a fuzzy adaptive tracking controller（FATC） is proposed. The controller consists of a fuzzy baseline controller and an adaptive increment, and the main highlight is that the fuzzy baseline controller and adaptation laws are both based on the fuzzy multiple Lyapunov function approach, which helps to reduce the conservatism for the large envelope and guarantees satisfactory tracking performances with strong robustness simultaneously within the whole envelope. The constraint condition of the fuzzy baseline controller is provided in the form of linear matrix inequality（LMI）, and it specifies the satisfactory tracking performances in the absence of uncertainties. The adaptive increment ensures the uniformly ultimately bounded（UUB） predication errors to recover satisfactory responses in the presence of uncertainties. Simulation results show that the proposed controller helps to achieve high-accuracy tracking of airspeed and altitude desirable commands with strong robustness to uncertainties throughout the entire flight envelope.     

Fuzzy robust nonlinear control approach for electro-hydraulic flight motion simulator

A fuzzy robust nonlinear controller for hydraulic rotary actuators in flight motion simulators is proposed. Compared with other three-order models of hydraulic rotary actuators, the proposed controller based on first-order nonlinear model is more easily applied in practice, whose control law is relatively simple. It not only does not need high-order derivative of desired command,but also does not require the feedback signals of velocity, acceleration and jerk of hydraulic rotary actuators. Another advantage is that it does not rely on any information of friction, inertia force and external disturbing force/torque, which are always difficult to resolve in flight motion simulators. Due to the special composite vane seals of rectangular cross-section and goalpost shape used in hydraulic rotary actuators, the leakage model is more complicated than that of traditional linear hydraulic cylinders. Adaptive multi-input single-output(MISO) fuzzy compensators are introduced to estimate nonlinear uncertain functions about leakage and bulk modulus. Meanwhile, the decomposition of the uncertainties is used to reduce the total number of fuzzy rules. Different from other adaptive fuzzy compensators, a discontinuous projection mapping is employed to guarantee the estimation process to be bounded. Furthermore, with a sufficient number of fuzzy rules, the controller theoretically can guarantee asymptotic tracking performance in the presence of the above uncertainties, which is very important for high-accuracy tracking control of flight motion simulators.Comparative experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, which can guarantee transient performance and better final accurate tracking in the presence of uncertain nonlinearities and parametric uncertainties.     

A composite disturbance observer and H_∞ control scheme for flexible spacecraft with measurement delay and input delay

In this paper, the attitude control algorithm of flexible spacecraft with unknown measurement delay and input delay based on disturbance observer is designed. The influence of measurement delay and input delay on the attitude control system and disturbance observer is analyzed. The disturbance estimation error equation is transformed into a differential system with a pure delay. Then, the observer gain is chosen based on the 3/2 stability theorem to ensure the stability and disturbance attenuation performance of the pure delay system. Next, the controller gain is designed based on the Linear Matrix Inequality(LMI) approach to guarantee the stability of the composite system and achieve H_∞ performance with two additive delays. The simulation results show that the proposed method can improve the anti-disturbance ability of the attitude control system.     

Two-stage open-loop velocity compensating method applied to multi-mass elastic transmission system

In this paper, a novel vibration-suppression open-loop control method for multi-mass system is proposed, which uses two-stage velocity compensating algorithm and fuzzy I ＋ P control- ler. This compensating method is based on model-based control theory in order to provide a damp- ing effect on the system mechanical part. The mathematical model of multi-mass system is built and reduced to estimate the velocities of masses. The velocity difference between adjacent masses is cal- culated dynamically. A 3-mass system is regarded as the composition of two 2-mass systems in order to realize the two-stage compensating algorithm. Instead of using a typical PI controller in the velocity compensating loop, a fuzzy I ＋ P controller is designed and its input variables are decided according to their impact on the system, which is different from the conventional fuzzy PID controller designing rules. Simulations and experimental results show that the proposed veloc- ity compensating method is effective in suppressing vibration on a 3-mass system and it has a better performance when the designed fuzzy I ＋ P controller is utilized in the control system.     

Attitude tracking control for variable structure near space vehicles based on switched nonlinear systems

An adaptive robust attitude tracking control law based on switched nonlinear systems is presented for a variable structure near space vehicle (VSNSV) in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances. The adaptive fuzzy systems are employed for approximating unknown functions in the flight dynamic model and their parameters are updated online. To improve the flight robust performance, robust controllers with adaptive gains are designed to compensate for the approximation errors and thus they have less design conservation. Moreover, a systematic procedure is developed for the synthesis of adaptive fuzzy dynamic surface control (DSC) approach. According to the common Lyapunov function theory, it is proved that all signals of the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded by the continuous controller. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control scheme.     

Backstepping design of missile guidance and control based on adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control

This paper presents an integrated missile guidance and control law based on adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control. The integrated model is formulated as a block-strict-feedback nonlinear system, in which modeling errors, unmodeled nonlinearities, target maneuvers, etc. are viewed as unknown uncertainties. The adaptive nonlinear control law is designed based on backstepping and sliding mode control techniques. An adaptive fuzzy system is adopted to approximate the coupling nonlinear functions of the system, and for the uncertainties, we utilize an online-adaptive control law to estimate the unknown parameters. The stability analysis of the closed-loop system is also conducted. Simulation results show that, with the application of the adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control, small miss distances and smooth missile trajectories are achieved, and the system is robust against system uncertainties and external disturbances.     

Closed-loop fault detection for full-envelope fligh vehicle with measurement delays

A closed-loop fault detection problem is investigated for the full-envelope flight vehicle with measurement delays,where the flight dynamics are modeled as a switched system with delayed feedback signals.The mode-dependent observer-based fault detection filters and state estimation feedback controllers are derived by considering the delays’impact on the control system and fault detection system simultaneously.Then,considering updating lags of the controllers/filters’switching signals which are introduced by the delayed measurement of altitude and Mach number,an asynchronous H∞ analysis method is proposed and the system model is further augmented to be an asynchronously switched time-delay system.Also,the global stability and desired performance of the augmented system are guaranteed by combining the switched delay-dependent Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method with the average dwell time method(ADT),and the delaydependent existing conditions for the controllers and fault detection filters are obtained in the form of the linear matrix inequalities(LMIs).Finally,numerical example based on the hypersonic vehicles and highly maneuverable technology(Hi MAT)vehicle is given to demonstrate the merits of the proposed method.     

Nonuniform Three-dimensional Configuration Distributed SAR Signal Reconstruction Clutter Suppression

This paper deals with the problem of clutter suppression in spaceborne distributed synthetic aperture radar (D-SAR) with nonuniform three-dimensional (3D) configuration geometry. In order to make a breakthrough of the configuration limitation of the traditional space time adaptive processing (STAP) based on uniform array and improve the inhomogeneous clutter suppression performance, this paper considers signal reconstruction technique using array interpolation to process the D-SAR signal. An array interpolation signal reconstruction method based on pitching-partition is derived then a signal reconstruction 3D-STAP clutter suppression method applied to nonuniform 3D configuration is proposed. In particular, the proposed method is compared with conventional methods and the performance analysis is carried out based on simulations. The improvement factor (IF) for clutter suppression is imported and reported as a benchmark on the clutter suppression effect.     

A salient edges detection algorithm of multi-sensor images and its rapid calculation based on PFCM kernel clustering

Multi-sensor image matching based on salient edges has broad prospect in applications, but it is difficult to extract salient edges of real multi-sensor images with noises fast and accurately by using common algorithms. According to the analysis of the features of salient edges, a novel salient edges detection algorithm and its rapid calculation are proposed based on possibility fuzzy C-means （PFCM） kernel clustering using two-dimensional vectors composed of the values of gray and texture. PFCM clustering can overcome the shortcomings that fuzzy C-means （FCM） cluster- ing is sensitive to noises and possibility C-means （PCM） clustering tends to find identical clusters. On this basis, a method is proposed to improve real-time performance by compressing data sets based on the idea of data reduction in the field of mathematical analysis. In addition, the idea that kernel-space is linearly separable is used to enhance robustness further. Experimental results show that this method extracts salient edges for real multi-sensor images with noises more accurately than the algorithm based on force fields and the FCM algorithm; and the proposed method is on average about 56 times faster than the PFCM algorithm in real time and has better robustness.     

Reliability analysis of aero-engine blades considering nonlinear strength degeneration

To comprehensively consider the effects of strength degeneration and failure correlation, an improved stress-strength interference (SSI) model is proposed to analyze the reliability of aeroengine blades with the fatigue failure mode. Two types of TC4 alloy experiments are conducted for the study on the damage accumulation law. All the parameters in the nonlinear damage model are obtained by the tension-compression fatigue tests, and the accuracy of the nonlinear damage model is verified by the damage tests. The strength degeneration model is put forward on the basis of the Chaboche nonlinear damage theory and the Griffith fracture criterion, and determined by measuring the fatigue toughness during the tests. From the comparison of two kinds of degeneration models based on the Miner’s linear law and the nonlinear damage model respectively, the nonlinear model has a significant advantage on prediction accuracy especially in the later period of life. A time-dependent SSI reliability model is established. By computing the stress distribution using the finite element (FE) technique, the reliability of a single blade during the whole service life is obtained. Considering the failure correlation of components, a modified reliability model of aero-engine blades with common cause failure (CCF) is presented. It shows a closer and more reasonable process with the actual working condition. The improved reliability model is illustrated to be applied to aero-engine blades well, and the approach purposed in this paper is suitable for any actual machinery component of aero-engine rotor systems.     

Automatic interval management for aircraft based on dynamic fuzzy speed control considering uncertainty

A novel real-time autonomous Interval Management System(IMS) is proposed to automate interval management, which considers the effect of wind uncertainty using the Dynamic Fuzzy Velocity Decision(DFVD) algorithm. The membership function can be generated dynamically based on the True Air Speed(TAS) limitation changes in real time and the interval criterion of the adjacent aircraft, and combined with human cognition to formulate fuzzy rules for speed adjusting decision-making. Three groups of exper...     

Variational Bayesian labeled multi-Bernoulli filter with unknown sensor noise statistics

It is difficult to build accurate model for measurement noise covariance in complex back-grounds. For the scenarios of unknown sensor noise variances, an adaptive multi-target tracking algorithm based on labeled random finite set and variational Bayesian (VB) approximation is pro-posed. The variational approximation technique is introduced to the labeled multi-Bernoulli (LMB) filter to jointly estimate the states of targets and sensor noise variances. Simulation results show that the proposed method can give unbiased estimation of cardinality and has better performance than the VB probability hypothesis density (VB-PHD) filter and the VB cardinality balanced multi-target multi-Bernoulli (VB-CBMeMBer) filter in harsh situations. The simulations also confirm the robustness of the proposed method against the time-varying noise variances. The computational complexity of proposed method is higher than the VB-PHD and VB-CBMeMBer in extreme cases, while the mean execution times of the three methods are close when targets are well separated.     

QUADRI-THRESHOLD ALGORITHM OF CO-LOCATED RADAR-TO-ESM CORRELATION

A quadri-threshold radar-to-ESM correlation algorithm is presented and the corresponding four thresholds (high threshold, middle threshold, low threshold, and threshold margin) are given. The proposed algorithm is especially suited for the scenarios where each radar track is specified by different numbers of measurements. Using a simple and effective discriminant function based on the fuzzy synthesis function, the proposed quadri-threshold radar-to-ESM correlation algorithm first selects the two most likely radar tracks and then makes the soft decision based on the selected two tracks. The introduction of the threshold margin in the presented algorithm can further reduce misclassification errors. Simulation results show the feasibility of the algorithm.     

Use of land＇s cooperative object to estimate UAV＇s pose for autonomous landing

The research of unmanned aerial vehicles＇（UAVs＇）autonomy navigation and landing guidance with computer vision has important signifcance.However,because of the image blurring,the position of the cooperative points cannot be obtained accurately,and the pose estimation algorithms based on the feature points have low precision.In this research,the pose estimation algorithm of UAV is proposed based on feature lines of the cooperative object for autonomous landing.This method uses the actual shape of the cooperative-target on ground and the principle of vanishing line.Roll angle is calculated from the vanishing line.Yaw angle is calculated from the location of the target in the image.Finally,the remaining extrinsic parameters are calculated by the coordinates transformation.Experimental results show that the pose estimation algorithm based on line feature has a higher precision and is more reliable than the pose estimation algorithm based on points feature.Moreover,the error of the algorithm we proposed is small enough when the UAV is near to the landing strip,and it can meet the basic requirements of UAV＇s autonomous landing.     

A Tracking Filter in Spherical Coordinates Enhanced by De-noising of Converted Doppler Measurements

Tracking problem in spherical coordinates with range rate (Doppler) measurements, which would have errors correlated to the range measurement errors, is investigated in this paper. The converted Doppler measurements, constructed by the product of the Doppler measurements and range measurements, are used to replace the original Doppler measurements. A de-noising method based on an unbiased Kalman filter (KF) is proposed to reduce the converted Doppler measurement errors before updating the target states for the constant velocity (CV) model. The states from the de-noising filter are then combined with the Cartesian states from the converted measurement Kalman filter (CMKF) to produce final state estimates. The nonlinearity of the de-noising filter states are handled by expanding them around the Cartesian states from the CMKF in a Taylor series up to the second order term. In the mean time, the correlation between the two filters caused by the common range measurements is handled by a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) estimation-based method. These result in a new tracking filter, CMDN-EKF2. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the proposed tracking filter can provide efficient and robust performance with a modest computational cost.