Development and performance evaluation of tropospheric scintillation model on Ku-band satellite link over Akure,Nigeria

Existing amplitude scintillation prediction models often perform less satisfactorily when deployed outside the regions where they were formulated. This necessitates the need to evaluate the performance of scintillation models developed in one region using data data from other regions while documenting their relative errors. Due to its variation with elevation angle, frequency, other link parameters and meteorological factors, we employed three years (January 2016 to December 2018) of concurrently measured satellite radio beacons and tropospheric weather parameters to develop a location-based amplitude scintillation prediction model over the Earth-space path of Akure (7.17^oN, 5.18^oE), South-western Nigeria. The satellite beacon measurement used Tektronix Y400 NetTek Analyzer at 1 s integration time while meteorological parameters, namely; temperature, pressure and relative humidity were measured using Davis Vantage Vue weather station at 1 min integration time. Comparative study of the model’s performance with nine (9) existing scintillation prediction models indicates that the best and worst performing models, in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), are the Statistical Temperature and Refractivity (STN) and direct physical and statistical prediction (DPSP) models with values 11.48 and 51.03 respectively. Also, worst month analysis indicates that April, with respective enhancement and fade values of 0.88 and 0.90 dB for 0.01% exceedance, is the overall worst calendar month for amplitude scintillation.     

导航卫星中断频次的分析方法

面向导航卫星中断频次的定量分析需求,该文分析导航卫星中断产生的主要原因,给出中断频次分析的流程,并针对分析过程中的三个关键问题,研究提出具体实施方法,包括通过相关性分析快速定位底层中断事件,通过中断树建立指标分析模型,并融合在轨数据、地面试验数据快速预估得到底层功能异常率等。最后通过示例进一步说明中断频次分析过程。该文方法已应用于北斗导航卫星工程。     

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.     

Mapping mean lake surface from satellite altimetry and GPS kinematic surveys

Lake water height is a key variable in water cycle and climate change studies, which is achievable using satellite altimetry constellation. A method based on data processing of altimetry from several satellites has been developed to interpolate mean lake surface (MLS) over a set of 22 big lakes distributed on the Earth. It has been applied on nadir radar altimeters in Low Resolution Mode (LRM: Jason-3, Saral/AltiKa, CryoSat-2) in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode (Sentinel-3A), and in SAR interferometric (SARin) mode (CryoSat-2), and on laser altimetry (ICESat). Validation of the method has been performed using a set of kinematic GPS height profiles from 18 field campaigns over the lake Issykkul, by comparison of altimetry’s height at crossover points for the other lakes and using the laser altimetry on ICESat-2 mission. The precision reached ranges from 3 to 7 cm RMS (Root Mean Square) depending on the lakes. Currently, lake water level inferred from satellite altimetry is provided with respect to an ellipsoid. Ellipsoidal heights are converted into orthométric heights using geoid models interpolated along the satellite tracks. These global geoid models were inferred from geodetic satellite missions coupled with absolute and regional anomaly gravity data sets spread over the Earth. However, the spatial resolution of the current geoid models does not allow capturing short wavelength undulations that may reach decimeters in mountaineering regions or for rift lakes (Baikal, Issykkul, Malawi, Tanganika). We interpolate in this work the geoid height anomalies with three recent geoid models, the EGM2008, XGM2016 and EIGEN-6C4d, and compare them with the Mean Surface of 22 lakes calculated using satellite altimetry. Assuming that MLS mimics the local undulations of the geoid, our study shows that over a large set of lakes (in East Africa, Andean mountain and Central Asia), short wavelength undulations of the geoid in poorly sampled areas can be derived using satellite altimetry. The models used in this study present very similar geographical patterns when compared to MLS. The precision of the models largely depends on the location of the lakes and is about 18 cm, in average over the Earth. MLS can serve as a validation dataset for any future geoid model. It will also be useful for validation of the future mission SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) which will measure and map water heights over the lakes with a high horizontal resolution of 250 by 250 m.     

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.     

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。     

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。