Uniform solution for the flow past a slender body with an attached shock wave in radiative magnetogasdynamics

A systematic perturbation scheme is used to study the propagation of a weak shock wave attached to a slender body in a supersonic flow of plasma with thermal radiation and investigate as to how the coupling between the radiative transfer and magneto-hydrodynamic phenomena affects the flow field. The analytical solution of the flow field has been presented up to the second order of ε. The shape of the shock wave attached to the slender body of revolution is obtained, which however can be expressed explicitly in terms of known functions when the radiative decay length is of the same order as the typical body length. Also, the shock angle at the tip of the projectile is obtained.     

Gyro Motion Boundedness under Uncertain Angular Acceleration about Vehicle Output Axis

An analysis of the motion of a single-axis rate gyroscope mounted in a space vehicle which has uncertain time-varying acceleration and deceleration ?x(t) about the output axis of the gyro is presented. Using a Lyapunov function, a condition for boundedness of the gyro motion is derived. It is shown that by a proper selection of the parameters of the gyro, its motion can be forced to remain in a small neighborhood (called region of ultimate boundedness) of the origin in ? - ? plane after a certain finite interval of time for any bounded uncertain ?x(t). Analytical relations for the selection of gyro parameters to keep the error caused in the measurement of the input rate due to ?x within desirable limits are derived.     

Solar wind governing the response of Venusian atmosphere and ionosphere

The ionosphere of Venus is primarily formed by photoionization of a gaseous blanket around Venus. The impact ionization by energetic solar charged particles also plays an important role in the variability of Venusian ionospheric ion, electron density and their temperature profiles. The microscopic variations in the solar wind velocity, particle flux and orientations of frozen-in interplanetary magnetic field determine the solar wind interaction with the Venusian ionosphere. The ion and electron density profiles obtained by Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Pioneer Venus Entry Probes have been analysed in the light of simultaneous solar wind velocity and particle flux. Marked changes in height profiles of ion, electron densities and their temperatures have been found to correlate with the simultaneous changes in the solar wind velocity and particle flux. It is shown that the solar wind plays a more important role in controlling the physical properties and behavior of daytime as well as nighttime ionosphere of Venus, whereas the solar xuv sustains the primary ionization process.     

Decoupled ultimate boundedness control of systems and largeaircraft maneuver

The robust trajectory control of a class of nonlinear systems which can be decoupled by state-variable feedback is considered. It is assumed that the system matrices are unknown but bounded. A nonlinear control law is derived so that the tracking error in the closed-loop system is uniformly bounded and tends to a certain small neighborhood of the origin. The error dynamics are asymptotically decoupled in an approximate sense. The controller includes a reference trajectory generator and uses the integral feedback of the tracking error. On the basis of this result, a flight control system is designed for the control of roll angle, angle of attack, and sideslip in rapid, nonlinear maneuvers of aircraft. Simulation results are presented to show that large, simultaneous lateral and longitudinal maneuvers can be performed in spite of the uncertainty in the stability derivatives     

Elastic Robot Control: Nonlinear Inversion and Linear Stabilization

An approach to the control of elastic robot systems for space applications using inversion, servocompensation, and feedback stabilization is presented. For simplicity, a robot arm (PUMA type) with three rotational joints is considered. The third link is assumed to be elastic. Using an inversion algorithm, a nonlinear decoupling control law Ud is derived such that in the closed-loop system independent control of joint angles by the three joint torquers is accomplished. For the stabilization of elastic oscillations, a linear feedback torquer control law us is obtained applying linear quadratic optimization to the linearized arm model augmented with a servocompensator about the terminal state. Simulation results show that in spite of uncertainties in the payload and vehicle angular velocity, good joint angle control and damping of elastic oscillations are obtained with the torquer control law u = ud + us.     

Nonlinear adaptive and sliding mode flight path control of F/A-18 model

The question of inertial trajectory control of aircraft in the three-dimensional space is discussed. It is assumed that the nonlinear aircraft model has uncertain aerodynamic derivatives. The control system is decomposed into a variable structure outer loop and an adaptive inner loop. The outer-loop feedback control system accomplishes (x,y,z) position trajectory and sideslip angle control using the derivative of thrust and three angular velocity components (p,q,r) as virtual control inputs. Then an adaptive inner feedback loop is designed, which produces the desired angular rotations of aircraft using aileron, elevator, and rudder control surfaces to complete the maneuver. Simplification in the inner-loop design is obtained based on a two-time scale (singular perturbation) design approach by ignoring the derivative of the virtual angular velocity vector, which is a function of slow variables. These results are applied to a simplified F/A-18 model. Simulation results are presented which show that in the closed-loop system asymptotic trajectory control is accomplished in spite of uncertainties in the model at different flight conditions.     

Control of nearly singular decoupling systems and nonlinearaircraft maneuver

The author treats the question of control of a class of nonlinear systems using state variable feedback whose input/output map is nearly singular. Although the existing decoupling theory is applicable to such systems, this requires a large amount of control, which may not be permissible. A decoupling approach using state variable feedback in an approximate sense, but requiring a small control magnitude is considered. A decoupling scheme is presented that gives rise to a singularly perturbed system describing the fast dynamics of the control vector. The quasi-steady-state solution of the system gives a control law that decouples the system in an approximate way. The controller includes a servocompensator and a reference trajectory generator. Based on this result, a control law for approximate decoupling of roll angle, angle of attack, and sideslip in rapid, nonlinear airplane maneuvers is derived. Simulated responses of the closed-loop system show that large, simultaneous lateral and longitudinal maneuvers can be accurately performed in spite of uncertainty in stability derivatives     

Feedback linearization and solar pressure satellite attitudecontrol

The question of large angle pitch attitude maneuver of satellites using solar radiation pressure is considered. For pitch axis maneuver, two highly reflective control surfaces are used to generate radiation moment. Based on dynamic feedback linearization, a nonlinear control law is derived for large pitch attitude control. In the closed-loop system, the response characteristics of the pitch angle are governed by a fourth-order linear differential equation. Robustness of control system is obtained by the integral error feedback. Simulation results are presented to show that in the closed-loop system, attitude control of the satellite is accomplished in spite of the parameter uncertainty in the system     

Sequential Monte Carlo methods for multitarget filtering with random finite sets

Random finite sets (RFSs) are natural representations of multitarget states and observations that allow multisensor multitarget filtering to fit in the unifying random set framework for data fusion. Although the foundation has been established in the form of finite set statistics (FISST), its relationship to conventional probability is not clear. Furthermore, optimal Bayesian multitarget filtering is not yet practical due to the inherent computational hurdle. Even the probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter, which propagates only the first moment (or PHD) instead of the full multitarget posterior, still involves multiple integrals with no closed forms in general. This article establishes the relationship between FISST and conventional probability that leads to the development of a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) multitarget filter. In addition, an SMC implementation of the PHD filter is proposed and demonstrated on a number of simulated scenarios. Both of the proposed filters are suitable for problems involving nonlinear nonGaussian dynamics. Convergence results for these filters are also established.     

Variation of ionospheric total electron content in Indian low latitude region of the equatorial anomaly during May 2007–April 2008

The ionospheric total electron content (TEC), derived by analyzing dual frequency signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) recorded near the Indian equatorial anomaly region, Varanasi (geomagnetic latitude 14°, 55′N, geomagnetic longitude 154°E) is studied. Specifically, we studied monthly, seasonal and annual variations as well as solar and geomagnetic effects on the equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) during the solar minimum period from May 2007 to April 2008. It is found that the daily maximum TEC near equatorial anomaly crest yield their maximum values during the equinox months and their minimum values during the summer. Using monthly averaged peak magnitude of TEC, a clear semiannual variation is seen with two maxima occurring in both spring and autumn. Statistical studies indicate that the variation of EIA crest in TEC is poorly correlated with Dst-index (r = −0.03) but correlated well with Kp-index (r = 0.82). The EIA crest in TEC is found to be more developed around 12:30 LT.