Control of approach and landing phase for reentry vehicle using fuzzy logic

The reentry vehicle is affected by various disturbances such as a wind gust, atmospheric condition or aerodynamic problems in the approach and landing phase. Therefore it is necessary to design a robust control scheme. This paper presents a control scheme using Mamdani fuzzy PD controller. In this paper, the reference trajectories are generated using geometric parameters for disturbed circumstances with 4 cases: nominal, headwind and tailwind, drag increased case. Then, a Mamdani fuzzy PD controller was designed in this study. Twenty-five rules were applied in the knowledge-based system. The max–min method for a fuzzy inference system and the center-of-mass method in defuzzification were used. Finally, guidance and control simulations are performed for verification of proposed controller using generated reference trajectories. In addition, the Monte Carlo simulation is performed considering various disturbances. The results show that proposed Mamdani fuzzy PD controller has reliability and robustness for control of reentry vehicle with wind disturbance in the approach and landing phases.     

Experimental investigation on silica dust lofting due to charging within micro-cavities and surface electric field in the vacuum chamber

The charged dust particles can be mobilized electrostatically by the repulsion between the adjacent grains and the surface electric field due to the incoming electron current and the charge accumulation within the micro-cavities. In this study, the experimental results of the initial vertical launching velocities and the maximum dust heights are compared with the estimated values for the lofted spherical dust grains by the patch surface charging equations. Silica particles with the sizes between <6 and 45?µm in radius are loaded on a graphite plate, and they are exposed to the electron beam with 450?eV energy under 4?×?10^?3?Pa vacuum chamber pressure. During the first set of the experiments, the dust samples are tested without an initial compression process and an additional horizontal electric field. Second, the dust samples are compressed by two different weights in order to increase the packing density under approximately 780.7?Pa and 3780?Pa. Finally, the dust grains are placed between the two parallel aluminum plates to apply approximately 2000?V/m and 4800?V/m horizontal electric field. A high-speed camera is used to record the transportation of the dust grains together with a microscopic telescope, and the results point out that the patch surface dust-charging model estimations are in agreement with the first experiments. On the other hand, the dust particles from the compressed samples are lofted with higher velocities than the estimations, and the number of the dust lofting observations decreases significantly, which demonstrates the importance of the micro-cavities and the increased charging requirement to overcome the contact forces. When the horizontal electric field is present, the initial vertical launching velocities are measured to be lower than the other experiments, which can be attributed to the decreased charging requirement for the dust lofting as a result of inter-particle collisions and rolling motion. According to the experimental results, the electrostatic dust transportation can be controlled not only by the ambient plasma and the solar irradiation on the airless planetary bodies, but also by the surface properties such as the contact surfaces between the dust grains, the number of the micro-cavities related to the packing density, and the presence of the horizontal electric field contributing to the external forces by other particle motions.     

Design and analysis of a regulated peak-power tracking system

A regulated peak-power tracking (RPPT) system for space power application is proposed. Large-signal stability analysis is provided to understand the main four different modes of operations of the system, as well as the mode transitions. A simple and effective control scheme for the system is also proposed. Small-signal analysis is performed thereafter to provide design optimization, and the predictions are verified by computer simulations     

Measurement of middle atmospheric ozone density profile by rocket-borne radiometer onboard KSR-II

KSR-II, a two-stage sounding rocket of KARI was launched successfully at the Korean Peninsula on June 11, 1998. The apogee of the rocket was 137 km. For the ozone measurement, 8-channel UV and visible radiometers were onboard the rocket. The rocket measured an in situ stratospheric and mesospheric ozone density profile over Korea during its ascending phase using the radiometer and transmitted the data to ground station in real time. The maximum ozone density occurs near 25 km. Retrieved profile has a random error (1σ) of approximately 15% for altitude below 20km, 7% between 20-50 km and 10% greater than 50 km. The retrieved data were compared with Dobson spectrophotometer, ozonesonde, and HALOE onboard the UARS. Our results are in reasonable agreements with others.     

Recursive time-to-go estimation for homing guidance missiles

This paper addresses the problem of computing accurate time-to-go estimates, which is an important issue in implementing various optimal guidance laws developed for missiles of time-varying velocity. A recursive time-to-go computation method which updates the time-to-go in a noniterative way is presented. The recursive method includes an error compensation feature which explicitly computes the time-to-go error produced by nonzero initial heading errors. The proposed method is simple and straightforward to implement for any missile velocity profiles. Various numerical examples show that the proposed method works effectively for optimal guidance laws as well as proportional navigation and augmented proportional navigation     

Optimum gain control for A/D conversion using digitized I/Q data inquadrature sampling

Calculation of optimum gain for minimum distortion due to A/D (analog-to-digital) conversion requires the estimation of the input signal strength. To use a common AGC (automatic gain control) for both the I/Q (in-phase and quadrature) signals, it is efficient to estimate the input signal strength using the quantized A/D output from both channels. Assuming a Gaussian input, the relationship between σ of the input of the A/D converter and E(|x|+|y|) and E(max(|x|,|y|)+1/2 min (|x|,|y|)) for t quantized I/Q output x and y is derived. Numerical results obtained using the derived expression and the statistical data obtained through simulation show excellent agreement. It is concluded that, because of its simplicity, the cubic equation obtained by fitting the numerical results should be useful     

Day-to-day variability of equatorial anomaly in GPS-TEC during low solar activity period

The ionospheric total electron content (TEC) in the northern hemispheric equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) crest region is investigated by using dual-frequency signals of the Global Positioning System (GPS) acquired from Rajkot (Geog. Lat. 22.29°N, Geog. Long. 70.74°E; Geom. Lat. 14.21°N, Geom. Long. 144.90°E), India. The day-to-day variability of EIA characteristics is examined during low solar activity period (F10.7∼83 sfu). It is found that the daily maximum TEC at EIA crest exhibits a day-to-day and strong semi-annual variability. The seasonal anomaly and equinoctial asymmetry in TEC at EIA is found non-existent and weaker, respectively. We found a moderate and positive correlation of daily magnitude of crest, Ic with daily F10.7 and EUV fluxes with a correlation coefficient of 0.43 and 0.33, respectively indicating an existence of a short-term relation between TEC at EIA and the solar radiation even during low solar activity period. The correlation of daily Ic with Dst index is also moderate (r = −0.35), whereas no correlation is found with the daily Kp index (r = 0.14) respectively. We found that the magnitude of EIA crest is moderately correlated with solar flux in all seasons except winter where it is weakly related (0.27). The magnitude of EIA crest is also found highly related with EEJ strength in spring (r = 0.69) and summer (r = 0.65) than autumn (0.5) and winter (r = 0.47), though EEJ is stronger in autumn than spring.     

Mechanical behavior and properties of fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composites for high temperature use

Ceramics can keep their mechanical characteristics up to 2 000℃ or higher.In this paper,A model to predict ultimate strength of continuous fiber-reinforced brittle matrix composites is developed.A statistical theory for the strength of a uni-axially fiber-reinforced brittle matrix composite is presented.Also a semi-empirical frictional heating method for estimating in-situ interfacial shear in fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites was improved.Local uneven fiber packing variation as well as uneven micro-damage during fatigue can be expected to have effects on the composites:generation of frictional heating,thermal gradients,and residual stresses around local fiber breaks.This study examined those engineering interests by the finite element method.      

Large-signal stability analysis of solar array power system

A large-signal stability analysis of the solar array regulator system is performed to facilitate the design and analysis of a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite power system. The effective load characteristics of various control methods in the solar array regulator system, such as the constant power load, variable power load, constant voltage load, constant current load, and constant resistive load, are classified to analyze the large-signal stability. Then, using the state plane analysis technique, the large-signal behavior of the solar array system is portrayed and the stability of various equilibrium points is analyzed. Thus, this approach can be contributed to organize the optimal controller structure of the system by representing the relationship between the control method of the solar array regulator and the large-signal stability. For the verification of the proposed large-signal analysis, a solar array regulator system that consists of two 100 W parallel module buck converters has been built and tested using a real 200 W solar array.     

Sounding rocket experiment of bare electrodynamic tether system

An overview of a sounding rocket, S-520-25th, project on space tether technology experiment is presented. The project is prepared by an international research group consisting of Japanese, European, American, and Australian researchers. The sounding rocket will be assembled by the ISAS/JAXA and will be launched in the summer of 2009. The sounding rocket mission includes two engineering experiments and two scientific experiments. These experiments consist of the deployment of bare electrodynamic tape tether in space, a quick ignition test of hollow cathode system in space, the demonstration of bare electrodynamic tether system in space, and the test of the OML (orbital-motion-limit) current collection theory.