Real-time translational control of a MEMS comb resonator

Closed-loop control has been successfully applied to a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) lateral comb resonator device in real-time to perform impulse disturbance damping and sinusoidal position control, enabled by the use of a through-wafer optical microprobe to obtain position feedback. This result leverages the application of lifetime, in-situ control of MEMS in order to provide quality assurance of microsystems in safety critical applications. A position feedback signal produced by a through-wafer optical microprobe has been used for comb resonator system model identification by two independent methods to accurately determine the effective mass, damping, and spring constant values of the device. After accurate determination of system parameters, closed-loop impulse disturbance damping and proportional-integral-differential (PID) translational control were applied. Closed-loop control results presented indicate controllability of such microstructures and response times on the order of the natural frequency of the device.     

The finite element analysis of shells of revolution with a branching meridian

We present an algorithm for calculating the shells of revolution with the branching meridian using the triangular finite elements, the rigidity matrices of which are formed based on the vector method of displacement interpolation [1]. The correct kinematic and static conditions of shell conjugation on the line of their coupling have been developed. The shell structure consisting of a cylinder and adjacent shells is calculated under various conditions of support.     

James Webb Space Telescope: Project Overview

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) project at the NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is responsible for the development, launch, flight, and science operations for the telescope. The project is in phase B with its launch scheduled for no earlier than June 2013. The project is a partnership among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The JWST mission team is fully in place, including major ESA and CSA subcontractors. This provides an overview of the planned JWST science, current architecture focusing on the instrumentation, and mission status, including technology developments, and risks.     

Recent Breakthroughs in RF Photonics for Radar Systems

Radar systems require transmission of very high purity signals. Photonics is now mature enough to achieve analog transmission with very low noise, strong immunity, and wide-bandwidth even in harsh environments. We present our recent developments of optimized optical links dedicated to radar and multifunction systems     

Wireless interconnection to test instruments

Manufacturers are increasingly offering Ethernet connectivity on their test instruments. An additional benefit of this connection method is the ease of conversion to wireless connectivity. This paper describes the Ethernet interface used in the remote control of a RF power amplifier and describes the conversion to wireless connection.     

Optimal number of phased array faces and signal processors for horizon surveillance

The problem of the optimal number of phased array faces for performing 360/spl deg/ horizon surveillance is considered. Assuming the detection performance is the same in all beam positions and the total number of T/R modules is constant, it is shown that the optimal number of array faces is three. This is true whether the arrays are operating simultaneously or sequentially. A parametric analysis is performed between the number of array faces operating simultaneously and the associated cost of simultaneous operation in terms of the size of the array.     

Reduced-order multiple model adaptive controller for flexiblespacestructure

The robustness of a moving-bank multiple model adaptive estimator/controller to order reduction in the controller design model is examined. It is shown that the adaptive mechanism and bank-moving logic are not confounded by the effects of unmodeled higher order modes of a large flexible spacestructure. Control characteristics are achieved that are essentially equivalent to those of an artificially informed benchmark controller     

Application of Gram-Schmidt algorithm to fully adaptive arrays

The Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization (GSO) algorithm has excellent numerical performance and is readily applicable to systolic implementations such as in a field of adaptive cancellation systems. A modified GSO algorithm for a fully adaptive array is proposed and computer simulations show that the proposed algorithm gives superior performance. A systolic implementation of the proposed GSO algorithm for fully adaptive array is presented. A feedback mode GSO algorithm for use with analog weights is also presented and has been shown to have excellent performance in the presence of weight errors     

ERS-1 radial position refinement by dual crossover analysis with TOPEX/Poseidon

Achieving orbital accuracies in the radial direction for ERS-1 commensurate with those for TOPEX/Poseidon is of utmost importance for the integration of the two altimeter data sets. This paper outlines a procedure whereby the radial orbit error for ERS-1 is recovered as a time series expansion in the form of a finite Fourier series with additional terms for atmospheric drag, solar radiation pressure, and initial state vector mismodelling. Using a least squares collocation method with constraints derived from the JGM2 gravity field co-variance matrix, the radial error is recovered using both dual crossovers and ERS-1 single satellite crossovers. Aggregate arcs are then used to derive the ERS-1 orbit error over the repeat period of 35 days. The results are presented in the improvement of fit in the dual crossover, ERS-1 crossover and altimetry data sets as well as the recovery of an altimeter bias for the two satellites.     

Problem of precision missile guidance: LQR and H/sup /spl infin// control frameworks

Addressed here is the precision missile guidance problem where the successful intercept criterion has been defined in terms of both minimizing the miss distance and controlling the missile body attitude with respect to the target at the terminal point. We show that the H/sup /spl infin// control theory, when suitably modified, provides an effective framework for the precision missile guidance problem. The existence of feedback controllers (guidance laws) is investigated for the case of finite horizon and non-zero initial conditions. Both state feedback and output feedback implementations are explored.