Review on ultra-lightweight flapping-wing nano air vehicles:Artificial muscles,flight control mechanism,and biomimetic wings

Flying insects are capable of flapping their wings to provide the required power and control forces for flight. A coordinated organizational system including muscles, wings, and control architecture plays a significant role, which provides the sources of inspiration for designing flapping-wing vehicles. In recent years, due to the development of micro-and meso-scale manufacturing technologies, advances in components technologies have directly led to a progress of smaller Flapping-Wing Nano Air V...     

民机新一代驾驶舱显示技术

在研究最新大型民用客机驾驶舱显示技术及平视显示器、电子飞行包、视景增强、合成视景等一系列新兴在研技术基础上,提出新一代驾驶舱显示技术的构想。新一代驾驶舱显示技术将以形象化的信息表达能力为基础,显示更丰富的周围环境,以达到降低飞行员工作量及提高飞行员情景意识和态势感知能力的目的。     

An intelligent approach for flight risk prediction under icing conditions

Flight risk prediction is significant in improving the flight crew’s situational awareness because it allows them to adopt appropriate operation strategies to prevent risk expansion caused by abnormal conditions, especially aircraft icing conditions. The flight risk space representing the nonlinear mapping relations between risk degree and the three-dimensional commanded vector(commanded airspeed, commanded bank angle, and commanded vertical velocity) is developed to provide the crew with practi...     

基于民航校验飞机的星基增强服务性能评估CSCD

为了进一步拓展全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)在民用航空等高生命安全领域的应用,世界各国争相发展星基增强系统(SBAS),美欧等SBAS已正式向民用航空领域提供了决断高度200英尺(约60.96m)的垂直导航信标性能(LPV-200)服务。我国的BDSBAS也已经完成系统建设,将向中国及周边区域提供满足国际民航组织(ICAO)一类垂直引导进近(APV-I)指标要求的单频增强服务。重点针对单频增强服务性能评估开展研究工作,首先从定位精度、完好性、可用性和连续性四个方面对星基增强服务评估方法进行了论述;再通过多次航空飞行试验对BDSBAS单频增强服务性能进行了验证,结果表明,航空飞行试验期间可满足APV-I设计指标要求;最后对BDSBAS单频增强服务在全国301个中大型机场的可用性进行了分析,非精密进近(NPA)可用性、APV-I可用性、LPV-200可用性在全国机场的覆盖率分别达到了97%、89.7%和83.1%。     

Locally generalised multi-agent reinforcement learning for demand and capacity balancing with customised neural networks

Reinforcement Learning (RL) techniques are being studied to solve the Demand and Capacity Balancing (DCB) problems to fully exploit their computational performance. A locally generalised Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) for real-world DCB problems is proposed. The proposed method can deploy trained agents directly to unseen scenarios in a specific Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) region to quickly obtain a satisfactory solution. In this method, agents of all flights in a scenario form a multi-agent decision-making system based on partial observation. The trained agent with the customised neural network can be deployed directly on the corresponding flight, allowing it to solve the DCB problem jointly. A cooperation coefficient is introduced in the reward function, which is used to adjust the agent’s cooperation preference in a multi-agent system, thereby controlling the distribution of flight delay time allocation. A multi-iteration mechanism is designed for the DCB decision-making framework to deal with problems arising from non-stationarity in MARL and to ensure that all hotspots are eliminated. Experiments based on large-scale high-complexity real-world scenarios are conducted to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the method. From a statistical point of view, it is proven that the proposed method is generalised within the scope of the flights and sectors of interest, and its optimisation performance outperforms the standard computer-assisted slot allocation and state-of-the-art RL-based DCB methods. The sensitivity analysis preliminarily reveals the effect of the cooperation coefficient on delay time allocation.     

Novel roll effector based on zero-mass-flux dual synthetic jets and its flight test

The autonomous and controllable Dual Synthetic Jet Actuator (DSJA) is firstly integrated into the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and flight tests without the deflection of rudders are carried out to verify the viability of DSJA to control the attitudes of UAV during cruising. DSJA is improved into an actuator with two diaphragms and three cavities, which has higher energy levels. Actuators, differentially distributed on both sides of the wings, are installed on the trailing edge close to the wing tips. Flight tests, containing Differential Circulation Control (DCC) using double-side actuators, Positive Circulation Control (PCC) using left-side actuators and Negative Circulation Control (NCC) using right-side actuators, are implemented at cruising speed of 25 m/s. Results show that roll attitude control without rudders could be realized by DSJAs. DCC and NCC can generate the rightward roll and yaw angular velocity, prompting UAV to turn right. The stronger controlling ability can be achieved by DCC, with the maximum roll angular velocity of 15.62 (°)/s. PCC can generate a rightward roll moment, but a leftward yaw moment will be produced at the same time. Leftward yaw induces the leftward rolling moment, which weakens the roll control effect, making UAV keep to yaw to the left with a small slope.     

Enhanced ultrasonic total focusing imaging of CFRP corner with ray theory-based homogenization technique

Ultrasonic testing is effective in defect characterization and quality assurance of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) components in the aerospace industry. Due to the coupling between complex shape and elastic anisotropy, the Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing (PAUT) and time-based Total Focusing Method (TFM) face significant challenges in the calculation of wave propagation. A wave velocity distribution model is established for a multidirectional convex corner of CFRP based on a homogenization theory and the above coupling effects are also incorporated. A ray-tracing method is proposed based on Dijkstra’s shortest path search algorithm. The predicted time of flight ensures that this technique, the homogenized TFM, could synthesize a high-quality focused image by post-processing on the full matrix capture data. Experiments on a laminate with three ?1.5 mm Side-Drilled Holes (SDHs) in different circumferential directions confirm a successful homogenized TFM imaging that all SDHs can be effectively detected. As compared to the isotropic scenario, the maximum positioning error is reduced to 0.12, 0.08, and 0.38 mm, and the Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) are increased by 2.1, 1.1, and 11.8 dB, respectively. It is suggested that the ray-tracing assisted TFM technique can effectively improve the imaging of corners in CFRP components.     

Novel moderate transformation of fuzzy membership function into basic belief assignment

In information fusion, the uncertain information from different sources might be modeled with different theoretical frameworks. When one needs to fuse the uncertain information represented by different uncertainty theories, constructing the transformation between different frameworks is crucial. Various transformations of a Fuzzy Membership Function (FMF) into a Basic Belief Assignment (BBA) have been proposed, where the transformations based on uncertainty maximization and minimization can determine the BBA without preselecting the focal elements. However, these two transformations that based on uncertainty optimization emphasize the extreme cases of uncertainty. To avoid extreme attitudinal bias, a trade-off or moderate BBA with the uncertainty degree between the minimal and maximal ones is more preferred. In this paper, two moderate transformations of an FMF into a trade-off BBA are proposed. One is the weighted average based transformation and the other is the optimization-based transformation with weighting mechanism, where the weighting factor can be user-specified or determined with some prior information. The rationality and effectiveness of our transformations are verified through numerical examples and classification examples.     

Control-oriented modeling of a high-aspect-ratio flying wing with coupled flight dynamics

The flight-structural dynamics of a high-aspect-ratio wing challenge the flight control design. This paper develops a reduced model of coupled dynamics with stability consideration. The structural dynamics are formulated with dihedrals, and the central loads drive the deformation. The control-oriented model with essential coupled dynamics is formulated. Modal sensitivity analysis and input–output pairing are performed to identify the control structure. Besides, an example of flight control design is provided to discuss the necessity of considering structural dynamics in controller design. Analytical coupled flight dynamics provide a system-theoretic approach for stability and facilitate model-based control techniques. Simulation results reveal the characteristics of flight-structural coupled dynamics and demonstrate that the influence of flexible modes should be considered in control design, especially in lateral dynamics.     

Design,modeling, and control of morphing aircraft:A review

A morphing aircraft can adapt its configuration to suit different types of tasks, which is also an important requirement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV). The successful development of an unmanned morphing aircraft involves three steps that determine its ability and intelligent: configuration design, dynamic modeling and flight control. This study conducts a comprehensive survey of morphing aircraft. First, the methods to design the configuration of a morphing aircraft are presented and analyzed...