<p> This thesis focuses on developing a mathematical model in Simulink to Crazyflie, an open source platform. Attitude, altitude and position controllers of a Crazyflie are designed in the mathematical model. The mathematical model is developed based on the quadcopter system dynamics using a non-linear approach. The parameters of translational and rotational dynamics of the quadcopter system are linearized and tuned individually. The tuned attitude and altitude controllers from the mathematical model are implemented on real time Crazyflie Simulink model to achieve autonomous and controlled flight.</p>

An optimal guidance law for a missile flight is one which determines appropriate controls to produce a flight path such that some mission objective will be achieved in the most efficient manner. Optimal Control Theory is often used to accomplish this task. One must bear in mind, however, that the usefulness of optimal control is sharply divided between two distinct classes of dynamical systems, namely, linear systems and nonlinear systems. For linear systems, the theory is complete in the sense that given a quadratic cost, a closed-loop feedback guidance law may be determined. For nonlinear systems, generally the best one can do is to determine an open-loop guidance law numerically using a software package such as MISER (1). (Some notable exceptions exist where a complete analytical synthesis of the closed-loop control may be obtained for nonlinear systems, e.g., in (2).) Although open-loop optimal guidance laws for nonlinear systems can now be computed quite efficiently with the advances of sophisticated numerical techniques along with high-speed digital computers, the highly-nonlinear and complex dynamics of missiles precludes the possibility of on-line implementation of open-loop optimal control. It has always been realized that if optimal closed-loop solutions could be obtained for comprehensive nonlinear systems such as missiles, then guidance laws based on such results would be superior to any other guidance laws available today. This superiority is due to, among other things, the elimination of some of the restrictive, and in many cases unrealistic assumptions made in the derivation of most current guidance laws in use such as, for instance, "tail-chase", unbounded control, simplified dynamics and/or aerodynamics, and non-maneuvering target, to name a few. In this study, an optimal closed-loop control law is obtained off-line by means of a Neural Network which is then used as an on-line controller for a generic missile. In the nonlinear case, the missile/target scenario is set up as a mathematical model using realistic dynamics. Then, given a Performance Index, the open-loop control is obtained by solving the problem using the optimal control software MISER for a number of different initial configurations. These open-loop solutions are then used to "teach" a neural network via backpropagation. Through simulation, it is then demonstrated how well the neural network performs as a feedback controller. The miss distance as well as the value of the Performance Index are used as measures of performance to be compared under the original open-loop control and the neural network closed-loop control. This problem is further extended to include a time lag in the missile dynamics. The effect of this time delay in the overall performance of the optimal controller is then examined.

<p> This project was started in the interest of supplementing existing data on additives to composite solid propellants. The study on the addition of iron and aluminum nanoparticles to composite AP/HTPB propellants was conducted at the Combustion and Energy Systems Laboratory at RPI in the new strand-burner experiment setup. For this study, a large literature review was conducted on history of solid propellant combustion modeling and the empirical results of tests on binders, plasticizers, AP particle size, and additives. </p><p> The study focused on the addition of nano-scale aluminum and iron in small concentrations to AP/HTPB solid propellants with an average AP particle size of 200 microns. Replacing 1% of the propellant's AP with 40-60 nm aluminum particles produced no change in combustive behavior. The addition of 1% 60-80 nm iron particles produced a significant increase in burn rate, although the increase was lesser at higher pressures. These results are summarized in Table 2. The increase in the burn rate at all pressures due to the addition of iron nanoparticles warranted further study on the effect of concentration of iron. Tests conducted at 10 atm showed that the mean regression rate varied with iron concentration, peaking at 1% and 3%. Regardless of the iron concentration, the regression rate was higher than the baseline AP/HTPB propellants. These results are summarized in Table 3.</p>

The Floating Satellite (FloatSat) system project which has been developed at the ‘Department of Aerospace Information Technology - University of Würzburg’ is used to test, develop and implement various attitude control algorithms and strategies for small satellites [1]. The FloatSat project is designed to operate on a Frictionless air bearing surface that works with compressed air flowing distributed on a hemisphere. This hemisphere is used to replicate the space environment required for a satellite to perform its attitude control, solar panel deployment and payload mission, the FloatSat basically consist of 1 axis control and stabilization with reaction wheel. Taking FloatSat to the next level, the aim of the Thesis is to Design, Fabricate and Model a three-axis controllable FloatSat that can be contained in a Sphere for free rotation and movement. The best feature of FloatSat is that they are plug &amp; play, easily accessible and compact size; retaining all these features in the design and extending the functionality of the product proves to be challenging. Furthermore, in the thesis it will be explained in detail about the various design consideration and selection of most feasible method on producing the final product. After the preliminary research for the design characteristics it was clear that the new FloatSat will be equipped with a controllable center of gravity mechanism that will provide balancing in any desired orientation. To obtain this feature three controllable moving masses are to be used in each axis of reaction wheel position. With Three reaction wheels and three moving masses to be equipped in the FloatSat the design challenges were high as considering the Sphere diameter is only 198mm. The various successful 3 axis satellite simulators are either huge or they are constrained in any one of the axis where it is positioned. On doing literature research it became clear that the sphere configuration with the given size has never been documented with promising results. It makes this thesis work to be first of its kind to perform 3 Axis FloatSat stabilization in a sphere of 198mm diameter. The FloatSat components include microcontroller STM32F4, Wi-Fi module for communication, three reaction wheel motors, three axial moving mass motor, Lithium Polymer batteries and motor controllers.

<p> Solar thermal propulsion (STP) offers an unique combination of thrust and efficiency, providing greater total &Delta;<i>V</i> capability than chemical propulsion systems without the order of magnitude increase in total mission duration associated with electric propulsion. Despite an over 50 year development history, no STP spacecraft has flown to-date as both perceived and actual complexity have overshadowed the potential performance benefit in relation to conventional technologies. The trend in solar thermal research over the past two decades has been towards simplification and miniaturization to overcome this complexity barrier in an effort finally mount an in-flight test. </p><p> A review of micro-propulsion technologies recently conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has identified solar thermal propulsion as a promising configuration for microsatellite missions requiring a substantial &Delta;<i> V</i> and recommended further study. A STP system provides performance which cannot be matched by conventional propulsion technologies in the context of the proposed microsatellite ''inspector" requiring rapid delivery of greater than 1500 m/s &Delta;<i>V</i>. With this mission profile as the target, the development of an effective STP architecture goes beyond incremental improvements and enables a new class of microsatellite missions.</p><p> Here, it is proposed that a bi-modal solar thermal propulsion system on a microsatellite platform can provide a greater than 50% increase in &Delta;<i> V</i> vs. chemical systems while maintaining delivery times measured in days. The realization of a microsatellite scale bi-modal STP system requires the integration of multiple new technologies, and with the exception of high performance thermal energy storage, the long history of STP development has provided "ready" solutions. </p><p> For the target bi-modal STP microsatellite, sensible heat thermal energy storage is insufficient and the development of high temperature latent heat thermal energy storage is an enabling technology for the platform. The use of silicon and boron as high temperature latent heat thermal energy storage materials has been in the background of solar thermal research for decades without a substantial investigation. This is despite a broad agreement in the literature about the performance benefits obtainable from a latent heat mechanisms which provides a high energy storage density and quasi-isothermal heat release at high temperature. </p><p> In this work, an experimental approach was taken to uncover the practical concerns associated specifically with applying silicon as an energy storage material. A new solar furnace was built and characterized enabling the creation of molten silicon in the laboratory. These tests have demonstrated the basic feasibility of a molten silicon based thermal energy storage system and have highlighted asymmetric heat transfer as well as silicon expansion damage to be the primary engineering concerns for the technology. For cylindrical geometries, it has been shown that reduced fill factors can prevent damage to graphite walled silicon containers at the expense of decreased energy storage density. </p><p> Concurrent with experimental testing, a cooling model was written using the "enthalpy method" to calculate the phase change process and predict test section performance. Despite a simplistic phase change model, and experimentally demonstrated complexities of the freezing process, results coincided with experimental data. It is thus possible to capture essential system behaviors of a latent heat thermal energy storage system even with low fidelity freezing kinetics modeling allowing the use of standard tools to obtain reasonable results. </p><p> Finally, a technological road map is provided listing extant technological concerns and potential solutions. Improvements in container design and an increased understanding of convective coupling efficiency will ultimately enable both high temperature latent heat thermal energy storage and a new class of high performance bi-modal solar thermal spacecraft.</p>

<p> This thesis investigates using adaptive estimation techniques to determine unknown model parameters such as size and surface material reflectivity, while estimating position, velocity, attitude, and attitude rates of a resident space object. This work focuses on the application of these methods to the space situational awareness problem.</p><p> This thesis proposes a unique method of implementing a top-level gating network in a dual-layer hierarchical mixture of experts. In addition it proposes a decaying learning parameter for use in both the single layer mixture of experts and the dual-layer hierarchical mixture of experts. Both a single layer mixture of experts and dual-layer hierarchical mixture of experts are compared to the multiple model adaptive estimation in estimating resident space object parameters such as size and reflectivity. The hierarchical mixture of experts consists of macromodes. Each macromode can estimate a different parameter in parallel. Each macromode is a single layer mixture of experts with unscented Kalman filters used as the experts. A gating network in each macromode determines a gating weight which is used as a hypothesis tester. Then the output of the macromode gating weights go to a top level gating weight to determine which macromode contains the most probable model. The measurements consist of astrometric and photometric data from non-resolved observations of the target gathered via a telescope with a charge coupled device camera. Each filter receives the same measurement sequence. The apparent magnitude measurement model consists of the Ashikhmin Shirley bidirectional reflectance distribution function. The measurements, process models, and the additional shape, mass, and inertia characteristics allow the algorithm to predict the state and select the most probable fit to the size and reflectance characteristics based on the statistics of the measurement residuals and innovation covariance. A simulation code is developed to test these adaptive estimation techniques. The feasibility of these methods will be demonstrated in this thesis.</p>

Next generation small satellites, also known as nanosatellites, have masses significantly lower than traditional satellites. Including the propellant mass, the total mass of a nanosatellite is often in the range of 1 to 4 $kg$. These satellites are being developed for numerous applications related to research, defense, and industry. Since their popularity began in the early 2000's, limitations on the downscaling of propulsion systems has proven to be problematic. Due to this, the vast majority of nanosatellite missions have limited lifespans of 90-120 days in low Earth orbit before they reenter the Earth's atmosphere. Although satellites on this scale have little available space for instrumentation, the development in the fields of microsensors, microelectronics, micromachinery, and microfluidics has increased the capabilities of small satellites tremendously. With limited options for primary propulsion and attitude control, nanosatellites would benefit greatly from the development of an inexpensive and easily implemented propulsion system. This work focuses on the development of an additively manufactured chemical propulsion system suitable for nanosatellite primary propulsion and attitude control. The availability of such a propulsion system would allow for new nanosatellite mission concepts, such as deep space exploration, maneuvering in low gravity environments, and formation flying. Experimental methods were used to develop a dual mode microthruster design which can operate in either low impulse, pseudo-monopropellant mode, or high impulse, bipropellant mode. Through the use of a homogeneous catalysis scheme for gas generation, nontoxic propellants are used to produce varying levels of thrust suitable for application in nanosatellite propulsion. The use of relatively benign propellants results in a system which is safe and inexpensive to manufacture, store, transport, and handle. In addition to these advantages, the majority of the propulsion system, including propellant storage, piping, manifolding, reaction chambers, and nozzles can be 3D printed directly into the nanosatellite chassis, further reducing the overall cost of the system. This work highlights the selection process of propellants, catalysts, and nozzle geometry for the propulsion system. Experiments were performed to determine a viable catalyst solution, validate the gas generation scheme, and validate operation of the system.

Detta arbete berör den grafiska presentationen av antikollisionssystemet TCAS. TCAS är ett oberoende system som används för att piloten ska ha en bra översyn om trafiksituationen runt om sitt egna flygplan och vid ett farligt närmande få manöverrådgivningar för att undvika kollision. För piloten presenteras TCAS på en trafikdisplay som ofta är integrerad i någon annan display såsom navigationsdisplayen. Vid manöverrådgivning får man rådgivningar på en RAdisplay som ofta är integrerad i PFD.  Syftet med detta arbete är att se om det går att förbättra den grafiska presentationen som piloten får, då det har visat sig att förståelsen för systemet ibland är bristande och vid hög trafikdensitet kan det bli rätt rörigt på trafikdisplayen. Detta är viktigt då piloten måste ha en bra uppfattning om trafiksituationen och kunna vara beredd på att göra en undanmanöver. Det är även viktigt att systemet är simpelt samtidigt som den ger all nödvändig information för att piloten ska vara medveten om trafiksituationen.   Jag har i detta arbete utvecklat nya symboler genom att titta på riktlinjer för symboldesign. Symbolerna utvecklades med hänsyn till mänskliga faktorer och hur människan reagerar på olika faktorer i symbolen, som till exempel färg, uppmärksamhetsfaktorer och form. Det befintliga systemet testades i en flygsimulator. Detta gav en bra praktisk bild av hur systemet ser ut idag, och även en ide om hur jag ska utveckla de nya symbolerna.    En intervju gjordes bland 6 kommersiella piloter, och utifrån deras feedback fick jag en förståelse för vad de ville ha för information på trafikdisplayen och vad de tyckte om det system jag utvecklat. Modifieringar gjordes och som resultat fick jag en simpel, men ändå informativ symboluppsättning.  Den nya presentationen gav i överlag ett positivt intryck, trots att de piloter som blev intervjuade sa att de skulle kunna använda den nya designen, var de nöjda med det befintliga systemet. De tyckte dock att den nya designen kunde vara bra vid utbildning.

<p> Wave propagation analysis in 1-D and 2-D composite structures is performed efficiently and accurately through the formulation of a User-Defined Element (UEL) based on the wavelet spectral finite element (WSFE) method. The WSFE method is based on the first order shear deformation theory which yields accurate results for wave motion at high frequencies. The wave equations are reduced to ordinary differential equations using Daubechies compactly supported, orthonormal, wavelet scaling functions for approximations in time and one spatial dimension. The 1-D and 2-D WSFE models are highly efficient computationally and provide a direct relationship between system input and output in the frequency domain. The UEL is formulated and implemented in Abaqus for wave propagation analysis in composite structures with complexities. Frequency domain formulation of WSFE leads to complex valued parameters, which are decoupled into real and imaginary parts and presented to Abaqus as real values. The final solution is obtained by forming a complex value using the real number solutions given by Abaqus. Several numerical examples are presented here for 1-D and 2-D composite waveguides. Wave motions predicted by the developed UEL correlate very well with Abaqus simulations using shear flexible elements. The results also show that the UEL largely retains computational efficiency of the WSFE method and extends its ability to model complex features.</p><p> An enhanced cross-correlation method (ECCM) is developed in order to accurately predict damage location in plates. Three major modifications are proposed to the widely used cross-correlation method (CCM) to improve damage localization capabilities, namely actuator-sensor configuration, signal pre-processing method, and signal post-processing method. The ECCM is investigated numerically (FEM simulation) and experimentally. Experimental investigations for damage detection employ a PZT transducer as actuator and laser Doppler vibrometer as sensor. Both numerical and experimental results show that the developed method is capable of damage localization with high precision. Further, ECCM is used to detect and localize debonding in a composite material skin-stiffener joint. The UEL is used to represent the healthy case whereas the damaged case is simulated using Abaqus. It is shown that the ECCM successfully detects the location of the debond in the skin-stiffener joint.</p>

Prediction of thermal loads within cavities in space turbine, has as been a challenging task  in aspects of achieving accurate and reasonable estimations that are crucial for design concepts. The difficulty lies within the turbulent flow and its thermal interaction with the structure inside such section. It does not exist a method that works perfectly for prediction of thermal loads in any cavity and the taken approach to perform this kind of analysis has been differently chosen. The objectives of this work have been to improve methods for assessment of thermal loads in space turbines, especially calculation of the heat transfer coefficient and bulk temperature. As the thesis was conducted at GKN Aerospace Sweden, Trollhättan, one of theirs demonstrator turbine was chosen for the study case. Its first stage rotor blade and the nearby cavity were the main research regions. The flow can enter and exit the cavity through one slot and is characterized with a very low axial speed. For the studied regions, the wall surface has been subdivided into a number of segments. With prescribed wall temperatures and use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to compute the wall heat flux at the sections, the heat transfer coefficient and bulk temperatures were determined in three different ways. One of them was based on evaluating one single CFD result and derive the thermal loads from formulas. The others used by point-plotting approach, whereas one of them focused on formulating a model that describes the thermal interaction between the section walls. The results demonstrate that this model was able to predict a section's wall heat flux as a function of the wall temperatures in fair agreement with CFD results for a range of temperature variations. Further more, some of the predicted heat transfer coefficient at a section shows to be highly sensitive to the prescribed wall temperatures in the cavity and rotor blade.