Instrument Failure Detection in Partially Observable Systems

Instrument failure detection using the dedicated observer scheme (DOS) depends on partial state observability through each instrument which is monitored. For instrument fault detection by the DOS technique, a quantitative measure of partial state observability is established for each instrument and used to determine a necessary condition on the output structure of the system. This measure, called the internal redundancy of the instrument, indicates the complexity of the logic required for failure detection, and it also indicates where some hardware redundancy can be introduced into the system to improve the fault detection capability of the DOS. The principles developed are applied to a simulation of the pitch axis autopilot of the A7 jet aircraft.     

Angular Accuracy of a Scanning Radar Employing a Two-Pole Filter

A two-pole filter is proposed as a detector for a scanning radar. The optimum values of the filter coefficients are found and are approximated by a simple expression. The optimum two-pole filter requires a 0.15-dB increase in signal-to-noise ratio in order to provide the same detection capability as the optimum detector, and yields azimuth estimates whose standard deviation are within 15 percent of the Cramér-Rao lower bound. The estimator is simple to implement, avoiding the storage requirements of the moving window detector and the bias complications of the feedback integrator.     

Pure proportional navigation against time-varying target manoeuvres

Capturability of the pure proportional navigation (PPN) guidance law against a target executing bounded piecewise continuous time-varying manoeuvres is investigated. A qualitative analysis is carried out to obtain a set of sufficient conditions for capture defined on the engagement parameters and initial conditions. These conditions are significantly less restrictive than the ones obtained previously by others using the Lyapunov method. It is shown that the actual capture region for time-varying target manoeuvres, obtained by using the conditions derived, is much larger than that obtained from the Lyapunov technique. We also show that though a bounded tine varying target manoeuvre does change the constant target manoeuvre capture region to some extent, it does not reduce it drastically. Further, we show that the worst case capture region is obtained when the target executes a constant manoeuvre equal to the bound on the manoeuvre level. Some bounds on the missile lateral acceleration are also obtained for certain regions in the engagement plane. These results are generalizations and extensions of existing results on the capturability of the PPN guidance law against targets executing constant or time-varying target manoeuvres     

The plasma mantle: Composition and other characteristics observed by means of the PROGNOZ-7 satellite

A brief summary of the main results of magnetospheric ion composition measurements in general is first presented. PROGNOZ-7 measurements in the nightside plasma mantle are then described and analyzed. Some of the results are the following: In the nightside mantle not too far from midnight the properties of the mantle are sometimes consistent with the open magnetosphere model. However during most magnetic storm situations O⁺ ions appear in the mantle in large proportions and with high energies. The acceleration process affecting the ions has been found in several cases to give equal amounts of energy to all ions independent of mass. Along the flanks of the magnetosphere the flow of the plasma is often low or absent. The O⁺ content is high (up to 20%) and the energy spectrum of both ions and electrons may be very hot, even up to the level of the ring current plasma in the keV range.The O⁺ content in the plasma mantle is positively correlated with the magnetospheric activity level. The mantle, however, does not appear to be the dominating source for the storm time ring current. Direct acceleration of ionospheric ions onto the closed field lines of the plasma sheet and ring current is most likely the main source. The magnetopause on the nightside and along the flanks of the magnetosphere appears to be a fairly solid boundary for mantle ions of ionospheric origin. This is especially evident during periods with high geomagnetic activity, when the mantle is associated with fairly strong fluxes of O⁺ ions.An interesting observation in most of the mantle passages during geomagnetically disturbed periods is the occurrence of intense, magnetosheath like, regions deep inside the mantle. In some cases these regions with strong antisunward flow and with predominant magnetosheath ion composition was observed in the innermost part of the mantle, i.e. marking a boundary region between the lobe and the mantle. These magnetosheath penetration events are usually associated with strong fluxes of accelerated ionospheric ions in nearby parts of the mantle. Evanescent penetration regions with much reduced flow properties are frequently observed in the flank mantle.     

Asymptotically Stable Motions of a Gyro in a Spinning Vehicle

An analysis of the motion of a single-axis rate gyroscope mounted in a space vehicle which is spinning with uncertain constant angular velocity xz about the spin axis of the gyro is presented. The nonlinearity in the equation of motion of the gimbal is retained. Using the Lyapunov approach, regions are obtained in the k-xz plane where k is the torsional spring constant, for asymptotic stability and for global asymptotic stability, and an estimate of the region of stability in state space is presented. Analytical relations for the selection of the gyro parameters are derived.     

Pulsations of the R Coronae Borealis stars

The radial pulsations of very luminous, low-mass models (L/M 10⁴, solar units), which are possible representatives of the R CrB stars, have been examined. These pulsations are extremely nonadiabatic. We find that there are in some cases at least one extra (strange) mode which makes interpretation difficult. The blue instability edges are also peculiar, in that there is an abrupt excursion of the blue edge to the blue for L/M sufficiently large. The range of periods of the model encompasses observed periods of the Cepheid-like pulsations of actual R CrB stars.     

Magnetic Position and Orientation Tracking System

Three-axis generation and sensing of quasi-static magneticdipole fields provide information sufficient to determine both the position and orientation of the sensor relative to the source. Linear rotation transformations based upon the previous measurements are applied to both the source excitation and sensor output vectors, yielding quantities that are linearly propotional to small changes in the position and orientation. Changes are separated using linear combinations of sensor output vectors, transformed to the desired coordinate frame, and used to update the previous measurements. Practical considerations for a head-tracking application are discussed.     

Optical Simulation of Radar Ambiguities

Coherent optical systems, because of their basic similarity to coherent radar systems, can be used to simulate many of the characteristics of the latter. This paper discusses the use of a coherent optical system for the simulation of the range and azimuth ambiguities that sometimes occur in radar systems. The optical configurations for implementing these simulations are described in detail, and extensive experimental results are presented.     

Some early results of the keV plasma experiment on GEOS-1

Some preliminary new results are presented of the keV plasma experiment on GEOS-1. Electrons and ions have been observed to stream along the magnetic field lines in the dayside magnetosphere from the ionospheric side of the satellite towards the equatorial plane during magnetic storms, with streaming velocities corresponding to a kinetic energy of the order of a keV. The opposite streaming velocity has also been seen, but primarily in the ions only and with a smaller flux ratio for the two opposite directions along the field lines. The transition between the two opposite streaming directions, as seen by the satellite, has been found to occur even in a fraction of a second.In magnetic storm conditions azimuthal asymmetries in ion fluxes corresponding to electric field intensities of several tens of millivolts per meter have been observed.