Fully distributed time-varying formation tracking control for multiple quadrotor vehicles via finite-time convergent extended state observer

This paper investigates a time-varying anti-disturbance formation problem for a group of quadrotor aircrafts with time-varying uncertainties and a directed interaction topology. A novel Finite-Time Convergent Extended State Observer (FTCESO) based fully-distributed formation control scheme is proposed to enhance the disturbance rejection and the formation tracking performances for networked quadrotors. By adopting the hierarchical control strategy, the multi-quadrotor system is separated into two subsystems: the outer-loop cooperative subsystem and the inner-loop attitude subsystem. In the outer-loop subsystem, with the estimation of disturbing forces and uncertain dynamics from FTCESOs, an adaptive consensus theory based cooperative controller is exploited to ensure the multiple quadrotors form and maintain a time-varying pattern relying only on the positions of the neighboring aircrafts. In the inner-loop subsystem, the desired attitude generated by the cooperative control law is stably tracked under a FTCESO-based attitude controller in a finite time. Based on a detailed algorithm to specify the cooperative control protocol, the feasibility condition to achieve the time-varying anti-disturbance formation tracking is derived and the rigorous analysis of the whole closed-loop multi-quadrotor system is given. Some numerical examples are conducted to intuitively demonstrate the effectiveness and the improvements of the proposed control framework.     

Optimization of bits allocation and path planning with trajectory constraint in UAV-enabled mobile edge computing system

In this paper, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) enabled Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) system is studied, in which UAV acts as server to offer computing offloading service to the Mobile Users (MUs) with limited computing capability and energy budget. We aim to minimize the total energy consumption of MUs by jointly optimizing the bit allocation for uplink, computing at the UAV and downlink, along with the UAV trajectory in a unified framework. To this end, a trajectory constraint model is employed to avoid sudden changes of velocity and acceleration during flying. Due to high-order information in use, we lead to a more reasonable nonconvex optimization problem than prior arts. An Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) method is introduced to solve the optimization problem, which is decomposed into a set of easy sub-problems, to meet the requirement on the efficiency in edge computing. Numerical results demonstrate that our approach leads a smoother UAV trajectory, significantly save the energy consumption for UAV during flying.     

Evaluation of a regional real-time precise positioning system based on GPS/BeiDou observations in Australia

The performance of real-time (RT) precise positioning can be improved by utilizing observations from multiple Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) instead of one particular system. Since the end of 2012, BeiDou, independently established by China, began to provide operational services for users in the Asia-Pacific regions. In this study, a regional RT precise positioning system is developed to evaluate the performance of GPS/BeiDou observations in Australia in providing high precision positioning services for users. Fixing three hourly updated satellite orbits, RT correction messages are generated and broadcasted by processing RT observation/navigation data streams from the national network of GNSS Continuously Operating Reference Stations in Australia (AUSCORS) at the server side. At the user side, RT PPP is realized by processing RT data streams and the RT correction messages received. RT clock offsets, for which the accuracy reached 0.07 and 0.28?ns for GPS and BeiDou, respectively, can be determined. Based on these corrections, an accuracy of 12.2, 30.0 and 45.6?cm in the North, East and Up directions was achieved for the BeiDou-only solution after 30 min while the GPS-only solution reached 5.1, 15.3 and 15.5?cm for the same components at the same time. A further improvement of 43.7, 36.9 and 45.0 percent in the three directions, respectively, was achieved for the combined GPS/BeiDou solution. After the initialization process, the North, East and Up positioning accuracies were 5.2, 8.1 and 17.8?cm, respectively, for the BeiDou-only solution, while 1.5, 3.0, and 4.7?cm for the GPS-only solution. However, we only noticed a 20.9% improvement in the East direction was obtained for the GPS/BeiDou solution, while no improvements in the other directions were detected. It is expected that such improvements may become bigger with the increasing accuracy of the BeiDou-only solution.     

Effect of moderate geomagnetic storms on equatorial plasma bubbles over eastern Africa in the year 2012: Evolution and electrodynamics

Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) are common features of the equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere and are known to cause radio wave scintillation which leads to the degradation of communication and navigation systems. Although these structures have been studied for decades, a full understanding of their evolution and dynamics remains important for space weather mitigation purposes. In this study, we present cases of EPBs occurrences around April and July 2012 geomagnetic storm periods over the African equatorial sector. The EPBs were observed from the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) and generally correlated well to the ionospheric irregularities observed from the Global Positioning System total electron content (GPS-TEC) measurements (rate of TEC change, ROT). This study revealed that the evolution of the EPBs during moderate storms is controlled by the strength of the daytime equatorial electrojet (EEJ) currents regardless of the strength of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), the latter is observed during the July storm case in particular. These effects were more evident during the main and part of the early recovery phases of the geomagnetic storm days considered. However, the evening hours TEC gradients between regions of the magnetic equator and ionization crests also played roles in the existence of ionospheric irregularities.     

航空电子产品电磁环境效应模块化设计方法

对高强度辐射场（HIRF）环境特点与干扰类型进行分析，采用理论计算、计算机仿真技术（CST）的仿真分析及实测等方法分别对某型飞机航空电子系统综合显示单元的外部强电磁辐射场孔缝耦合、场线耦合及芯片前端电路影响关键芯片的相关规律进行了研究，给出了相关设计建议。结果表明，可通过分析孔缝、场线耦合获得进入关键芯片前端电路的电磁干扰能量，再结合关键芯片前端电路网络对干扰的插入损耗分析，获得关键芯片在外部强场激励下的感应电压。     

Review and propositions for the sliding/impact wear behavior in a contact interface

A thermal-solid-liquid complex operational environment induces structural interface developing a typical coupling sliding/impact wear behavior. It results in contact damage until systems fail, which may cause significant economic losses and catastrophic consequences. The key point of solving this problem is to reveal the coupling damage mechanism of the sliding/impact behavior in typical systems and life characterization under a complicate evolving environment. This has been a hot topic in the area of mechanical reliability. The main work in this paper can be concluded as follows. Firstly, the main industries in which the “sliding/impact behavior” takes place have been introduced. Then, existing studies on the wear mechanism and degree analysis are presented, which includes surface morphology analysis, wear debris analysis, and wear degree measurement. Meanwhile, existing problems in theoretical modeling and experiments in current research are summarized, so as to point out a bright direction for future research on wear prediction. They include interface contact modeling, mathematic coupling mechanism modeling, wear equation establishment, and wear life characterization, which can provide some new ideas for improving the existing studies on the sliding/impact wear behavior.     

PDM技术及其在直升机研制中的作用

本文首先分析了当前直升机在运用CAD/CAE/CAM技术进行研制中存在的一些问题,接着提供了解决的方法,介绍了PDM的概念、构成、主要功能。最后简述了PDM技术在直升机研制中的作用,以及企业在实施PDM当中应注意的一些问题。     

预测悬停旋翼跨音速流动的一种组合自由尾流/CFD方法

一种新的组合自由尾流 / CFD方法用于悬停旋翼流动的 CFD解中以考虑实际尾流的作用 .用文中描述的尾流分析方法研究了螺旋尖涡的运动 .首先从广义尾流模型开始 ,用半经验公式模化了涡核对旋翼尾流的作用 ;然后在环量收敛和尾迹收敛的条件下完成了自由尾迹计算 ;最后应用 Jameson有限体积龙格 -库塔推进格式求解了欧拉方程 .所得结果与相关文献和实验数据进行了比较