Method of designing a neural controller for the automatic lateral control of unmanned aerial vehicles

The paper discusses a method of designing the neural controller for two-channel control of a technical object by an example of the roll and yaw control depending on deviations, velocities and accelerations of their variation.     

The adjustment of the mathematical model accuracy of the gas-hydraulic flight control actuator power circuit of an aircraft

The methodology is proposed and the mathematical model is developed for the purpose of numerical simulation of the power circuit of the gas-hydraulic actuator with displacing power source for the gimbaled nozzle control. It provides the highest power efficiency factor of the actuator as a part of aircraft by means of pulling together the profiles of available and required power.     

The Far Ultra-Violet Imager on the Icon Mission

ICON Far UltraViolet (FUV) imager contributes to the ICON science objectives by providing remote sensing measurements of the daytime and nighttime atmosphere/ionosphere. During sunlit atmospheric conditions, ICON FUV images the limb altitude profile in the shortwave (SW) band at 135.6 nm and the longwave (LW) band at 157 nm perpendicular to the satellite motion to retrieve the atmospheric O/N₂ ratio. In conditions of atmospheric darkness, ICON FUV measures the 135.6 nm recombination emission of \(\mathrm{O}^{+}\) ions used to compute the nighttime ionospheric altitude distribution. ICON Far UltraViolet (FUV) imager is a Czerny–Turner design Spectrographic Imager with two exit slits and corresponding back imager cameras that produce two independent images in separate wavelength bands on two detectors. All observations will be processed as limb altitude profiles. In addition, the ionospheric 135.6 nm data will be processed as longitude and latitude spatial maps to obtain images of ion distributions around regions of equatorial spread F. The ICON FUV optic axis is pointed 20 degrees below local horizontal and has a steering mirror that allows the field of view to be steered up to 30 degrees forward and aft, to keep the local magnetic meridian in the field of view. The detectors are micro channel plate (MCP) intensified FUV tubes with the phosphor fiber-optically coupled to Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs). The dual stack MCP-s amplify the photoelectron signals to overcome the CCD noise and the rapidly scanned frames are co-added to digitally create 12-second integrated images. Digital on-board signal processing is used to compensate for geometric distortion and satellite motion and to achieve data compression. The instrument was originally aligned in visible light by using a special grating and visible cameras. Final alignment, functional and environmental testing and calibration were performed in a large vacuum chamber with a UV source. The test and calibration program showed that ICON FUV meets its design requirements and is ready to be launched on the ICON spacecraft.     

难加工材料闭式整体构件精密电火花加工技术研究

闭式整体构件因其结构复杂、叶间流道空间弯扭程度大,使得加工可达性极差,且材料一般为难加工的高强度合金,整体制造难度很大。针对这一制造难题,研究了闭式整体构件电火花加工的若干关键技术,如叶间流道加工区域划分、成形电极及其加工运动轨迹设计、工艺基准统一和电参数选择与优化、数控电火花加工过程仿真分析等。在此基础上针对典型闭式整体构件进行了试制加工。试验结果表明,基于所研究的关键技术能够采用数控电火花加工技术精密、可靠地实现闭式整体构件的整体制造。     

基于马尔科夫链模型的脉动装配线运行状态预测

分析了影响脉动生产线运行的因素和状态预测的必要性,提出了基于马尔科夫链模型的状态预测方法。基于马尔科夫链预测理论,对脉动生产线运行状态划分,确定状态转移矩阵,建立马尔科夫预测模型,并对模型准确性进行验证。     

复合材料加筋壁板制造成本的快速估算模型

为了能够在设计阶段早期对复合材料加筋壁板制造成本进行快速估算,提出了一种以结构设计重量为主要驱动因素的制造成本估算模型。该模型的关键是考虑了诸如材料成本比重系数、制造工艺系数、蒙皮形状系数、筋条形状系数、材料利用率系数等合理取值。以某验证试验的试验件制造成本估算为例,估算成本与实际制造成本的偏差为10.8%,说明了采用该方法对复合材料加筋壁板制造成本进行快速估算的结果是可以为设计人员提供决策依据的。     

On ULF Signatures of Lightning Discharges

Recent works on magnetic signatures due to distant lightning discharges are reviewed. Emphasis is laid on magnetic signatures in the ULF range (in the old definition from less than 1 mHz up to 1 Hz), that is in the frequency range below the Schumann resonance. These signatures are known to be of importance for the excitation of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator (IAR) which works only at night time conditions. This emphasizes the difference between night and day time ULF signatures of lightning. The IAR forms a link between the atmosphere and magnetosphere. Similarities and differences of this link in the VLF (Trimpi effect) and ULF range are worked out. A search for a unique signature of sprite-associated positive cloud-to-ground (⁺CG) lightning discharges ended with a negative result. In this context, however, a new model of lightning-associated induced mesospheric currents was built. Depending on mesospheric condition it can produce magnetic signatures in the entire frequency range from VLF, ELF to ULF. In the latter case it can explain signatures known as the Ultra Slow Tail of ⁺CG lightning discharges. A current problem on the magnetic background noise intensity has been solved by taking more seriously the contribution of ⁺CG lightning discharges to the overall background noise. Their low occurrence rate is more than compensated by their large and long lasting continuing currents. By superposed epoch analysis it could be shown that the ULF response to ^?CG is one to two orders smaller that in case of ⁺CG with similar peak current values of the return stroke.     

Atmospheric Electricity at Saturn

The Cassini mission provides a great opportunity to enlarge our knowledge of atmospheric electricity at the gas giant Saturn. Following Voyager studies, the RPWS (Radio and Plasma Wave Science) instrument has measured again the so-called SEDs (Saturn Electrostatic Discharges) which are the radio signature of lightning flashes. Observations by Cassini/ISS (Imaging Science Subsystem) have shown cloud features in Saturn’s atmosphere whose occurrence, longitudinal drift rate, and brightness were strongly related to the SEDs. In this paper we will review the main physical parameters of the SEDs. Lightning does not only give us clues about the dynamics of the atmosphere, but also serves as a natural tool to investigate properties of Saturn’s ionosphere. We will also discuss other lightning related phenomena and compare Saturn lightning with terrestrial and Jovian lightning.     

The THEMIS Array of Ground-based Observatories for the Study of Auroral Substorms

The NASA Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) project is intended to investigate magnetospheric substorm phenomena, which are the manifestations of a basic instability of the magnetosphere and a dominant mechanism of plasma transport and explosive energy release. The major controversy in substorm science is the uncertainty as to whether the instability is initiated near the Earth, or in the more distant >20 Re magnetic tail. THEMIS will discriminate between the two possibilities by using five in-situ satellites and ground-based all-sky imagers and magnetometers, and inferring the propagation direction by timing the observation of the substorm initiation at multiple locations in the magnetosphere. An array of stations, consisting of 20 all-sky imagers (ASIs) and 30-plus magnetometers, has been developed and deployed in the North American continent, from Alaska to Labrador, for the broad coverage of the nightside magnetosphere. Each ground-based observatory (GBO) contains a white light imager that takes auroral images at a 3-second repetition rate (“cadence”) and a magnetometer that records the 3 axis variation of the magnetic field at 2 Hz frequency. The stations return compressed images, “thumbnails,” to two central databases: one located at UC Berkeley and the other at the University of Calgary, Canada. The full images are recorded at each station on hard drives, and these devices are physically returned to the two data centers for data copying. All data are made available for public use by scientists in “browse products,” accessible by using internet browsers or in the form of downloadable CDF data files (the “browse products” are described in detail in a later section). Twenty all-sky imager stations are installed and running at the time of this publication. An example of a substorm was observed on the 23rd of December 2006, and from the THEMIS GBO data, we found that the substorm onset brightening of the equatorward arc was a gradual process (>27 seconds), with minimal morphology changes until the arc breaks up. The breakup was timed to the nearest frame (<3 s) and located to the nearest latitude degree at about ±3^oE in longitude. The data also showed that a similar breakup occurred in Alaska ～10 minutes later, highlighting the need for an array to distinguish prime onset.