Neste trabalho, o uso de bio-óleo foi proposto como alternativa aos combustíveis fósseis (petróleo). O bio-óleo foi produzido por pirólise de serragem de eucalipto e óleo de fritura de soja descartado, enquanto que o óxido de cálcio (CaO) foi usado como catalisador de pirólise para melhorar o rendimento de bio-óleo. A temperatura do sistema de pirólise foi iniciada a 25 °C e aumentada para 850 °C. A destilação atmosférica de bio-óleo bruto foi realizada após a pirólise e duas frações foram separadas à temperatura de 80−160 ºC (LFP, Fação Leve da Pirólise do bio- óleo) e 160−240 ºC (HFP, Fração Pesada da Pirólise do bio-óleo) e as quais foram analisadas por TGA (análise térmica gravimétrica), GC-MS (cromatografia gasosa acoplada a espectrometria de massa), FTIR (espectroscopia de infravermelho de transformação de Fourier) e RMN (espectroscopia de ressonância magnética nuclear) verificando-se que havia uma abundância de espécies contendo nitrogênio e oxigênio, bem como outras espécies reativas. Com o objetivo de reduzir a quantidade destas espécies após a pirólise, as frações LFP e HFP foram submetidas ao processo de craqueamento térmico na presença de hidrogênio (hidrogenação) e, novamente submetido a hidrogenação catalítica na presença do catalisador de NiMo. Após a hidrogenação catalítca, foi realizada a segunda destilação atmosférica obtendo-se duas frações à temperatura de 80−160 ºC (LFH, Fração Leve da Hidrogenação ) e 160−240 ºC (HFH, Fração Pesada da Hidrogenação) as quais foram igualmente caracterizadas pelas técnicas acima enumeradas, observando-se que mais de 60% de espécies nitrogenadas, oxigenadas e outras espécies reativas foram convertidas em hidrocarbonetos. As diferenças entre LFP, HFP e LFH, HFH foram apresentadas e discutidas criticamente neste trabalho, onde verificou-se após as análises fisico-químicas como composição química, entalpia de combustão, ponto de congelamento, densidade, viscosidade e volatilidadeque as frações obtidas pelo processo de Page 17 of 115 craqueamento e hidrogenação catalítica (LFH e HFH) podem ser usadas como combustíveis, porque apresentaram semelhanças muito próximas nas propriedades fisico-quimicas importantes do óleo de aviação (AF) e óleo diesel (DF). A partir destas informações foram preparadas formulações com 10 e 20% (m/m) das frações: HFH com óleo de aviação (AF) e LFH com oleo diesel (DF). As análises fisico quimicas destas formulações comparadas com o AF e DF mostraram o potencial uso destas frações como aditivos e consequente contribuição para a amenização da crise energética mundial.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-273). / The growth and decline of manufacturing industries in the past century and the industrial landscape that this activity has produced has had profound physical, environmental, social and economic impact on the communities of which they are an integral part. Throughout the past century, industry has dominated the man-made environment in tenns of its size, frequency of occurrence and highly prominent position in the community. In America this is particularly true, as the history of urban industrialism has shaped our nation and the character of our urban environment over the last one hundred years. Because industrial sites have played a significant role in the physical form, social composition and environmental-both natural and man-made character of American communities - their obsolescence, whether creating a change in function or eliminating the function entirely, leaves a tremendous void, both physically and economically. The obsolete industrial landscape,whether abandoned or underutilized, leaves the public and private sectors, as well as the community with the task of "reconstructing"-the reintegration of large scale environments through reuse and reprogramming-the site, architecture and infrastructure that is left as obsolete. Reconstruction of obsolete or redundant industrial sites occurs in various ways, though efforts are generally of a fairly singular focus, with the private sector making decisions based largely on market and financial considerations. While the private sector has made some effort to retrofit existing facilities with new technology and processes, the conventional approach has been to leave them behind and start fresh. Existing infrastructure, environmental quality and employee relations are generally deemed too difficult to retrofit, and so new plants are developed on green fields elsewhere, while older facilities are abandoned, demolished or sold to other parties for redevelopment. Reuse strategies have focused on the subdivision of older industrial structures to accommodate incubator industries which require less square footage than traditional heavy industries. While examples of this conventional redevelopment approach dominate in the United States, a multidisciplinary, participatory approach has been used in both European countries and the United States. Over the last decade, increased interest in the industrial landscape and its reconstruction has spawned numerous efforts world wide. In Italy and France, private sector finns such as Fiat, Pirelli, and Schlumberger have joined forces with the public sector in order to develop planning and design directions for important pieces of the urban landscape. Programs range from institutional and mixed use development to industrial and commercial reuse. In the United States, planning efforts at the federal, state and local levels have produced various participatory approaches. In recent years, the Department of the Interior through the National Park Service, has developed and implemented a program of "heritage areas", focused on the country's transportation and industrial heritage. The objectives of the cultural development strategy are to preserve industrial heritage while catalyzing economic development in the surrounding community. A candidate for multidisciplinary reconstruction planning is the Ford Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The Rouge Complex has served for its 75 years as the center piece of the regional automotive economy in Southeastern Michigan and the automotive manufacturing in the country as a whole. From its modest beginnings on remote farm and marshland in 1917, Henry Ford I and Albert Kahn's joint vision for the Rouge quickly eclipsed their revolutionary Highland Park facility, inherited its assembly line and grew to become the largest manufacturing complex in the world. Once, the self proclaimed "industrial city" was admired, imitated, portrayed and visited by industrialists, artists and designers and tourists from every comer of the world. Today, the complex is in a state of transition and uncertainty about the future. Poised for reconstruction, it is now at the center of an economy which has been wholly dependent on the cyclical nature of the automotive industry and tied to its convulsions, relocations and downsizing. The Rouge is also in the midst of the region's economic and social strife Based on these existing conditions, can a reconstruction approach for the site create new economic and social value? If a strategy which embraces a multidimensional notion of value, emphasizing "information value", is employed, the answer may be in the affirmative. Considered in this way, the Rouge represents a major redevelopment opportunity. Nowhere is there a more potent site for such a redevelopment; nowhere in the region does the confluence of these three notions of value occur in a more powerful way. The infrastructure that exists there could not be cost effectively reproduced today. There is no other location in the region which is better served by modal options or better positioned in relation to such options. Most importantly, there are few other sites in the world which are so charged with historic and cultural meaning which is of significance at a local, national and international level, and where the juxtaposition of 20th and 21st century industrial landscape and technology meet. The thesis concludes with a recommended scenario for the reconstruction of the Rouge, focusing on a master planning approach and recommended development program which draw from examples of industrial reconstruction precedents in the the European Community and the United States. The recommended scenario advocates a multidisciplinary, participatory master planning approach. The process identifies different notions of "value" that are inherent in the Rouge. The development concept consists of four development components, each embracing different notions of value, all of which hold economic potential: infrastructure value, which focuses on the value of the buildings and infrastructure to the market, location value, which focuses on the sites context, adjacencies and linkages; and the information value, which focuses on the symbolic, historic and cultural meaning of the site. In approaching the site with this combination, the results are enhanced economic value and a physical result which addresses the concerns and issues of the stakeholders in the process-the company, the union and the community. / by Constance Corinne Bodurow Rea. / M.S.

Locomotion, including running, walking, and swimming, is a complex behavior enabling animals to interact with the environment. Vertebrate locomotion depends upon sets of interneurons in the spinal cord, known as the central pattern generator (CPG). The CPG performs multiple roles: pattern formation (left-right alternation and flexor-extensor alternation) and rhythm generation (the onset and frequency of locomotion). Many studies have begun to unravel the organization of the neuronal circuits underlying left-right and flexor-extensor alternation. However, despite pharmacologic, lesion, and optogenetic studies suggesting that the rhythm generating neurons are ispilaterally-projecting glutamatergic neurons, the precise cellular identification of rhythm generating neurons remains largely unknown. Traditionally, CPG networks (both pattern formation and rhythm generation) are thought to reside upstream of motor neurons, which serve as the output of the spinal cord. Recently however, it has been discovered that direct stimulation of lumbar motor neurons using the intact ex vivo neonate mouse spinal cord preparation can activate CPG networks to produce locomotor-like behavior. Furthermore, depressing motor neuron discharge decreases locomotor frequency, whereas increasing motor neuron discharge accelerates locomotor frequency, suggesting that motor neurons provide ongoing feedback to the CPG. However, the circuit mechanisms through which motor neurons can influence activity in the CPG in mammals remain unknown. Here, I used motor neurons as a means of accessing CPG interneurons by asking how motor neuron activation might induce locomotor-like activity. Through intracellular recording and morphological assays, I discovered that ventral spinocerebellar tract (VSCT) neurons are activated monosynaptically following motor neuron axon stimulation through chemical and electrical synapses. A subset of VSCT neurons were located close to or within the motor neuron nucleus. VSCT neurons were found to be excitatory, have descending spinal axon collaterals, and influence motor neuron output, suggesting that VSCT neurons are positioned advantageously to initiate and maintain locomotor-like rhythmogenesis. Intracellular recording from VSCT neurons revealed that they exhibit rhythmic activity during locomotor-like activity. VSCT neurons were found to contain the rhythmogenic pacemaker Ih current and to be connected to other VSCT neurons, at least through gap junctions. Optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulation of VSCT neuron activity provided evidence that VSCT neurons are both necessary and sufficient for the production of locomotor-like activity. Silencing VSCT neurons prevented the induction of such activity, whereas activation of VSCT neurons was capable of inducing locomotor-like activity. The production of locomotor-like activity by VSCT neuron photoactivation was dependent upon both electrical communication through gap junctions as well as the pacemaker Ih current. The evidence presented in this thesis suggests that VSCT neurons are critical components for rhythm generation in the mammalian CPG and are key mediators of locomotor activity.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) based high-precision positioning techniques have been widely used in geodesy, attitude determination, engineering survey and agricultural applications. With the modernisation of GNSS, the number of visible satellites and new signals are increasing. Multi-constellation and multi-frequency data provide users with more observations, and hence increase redundancy in parameter estimation. However, increased number of satellites may increase the chance of multipath errors, especially in difficult environments. Therefore, this thesis aims at characterising the measurement signal quality of all available and new signals of multi-GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS, and QZSS) with real data. Also, a new multipath detection model based on machine learning methods is developed. The measurement noise levels in all currently available signals have been studied by investigating their double difference (DD) carrier phase residuals. The positioning precision, accuracy, and ambiguity success rate have been assessed using the selected individual GNSS constellations and their selected combinations with static and kinematic antennas in low multipath and severe multipath environments. The statistical results show the residuals vary from 0.5 mm to 2 mm with different signals and models of receivers. Short baseline tests show that in ideal conditions (i.e., a low multipath environment), using a single GNSS constellation (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, or BDS) or their combinations can usually achieve millimetre-level precision and centimetre-level accuracy with almost 100% ambiguity success rates, regardless if the rover antenna is static or kinematic. In realistic condition (i.e. a severe multipath environment) the positioning precision and accuracy reduce to the centimetre level or even worse with a kinematic antenna. Multipath effect is one of the major error sources in GNSS positioning. Most of the currently available multipath detection and mitigation methods are based on stochastic modelling, advanced techniques in data processing, spatial geometry modelling, and special hardware designs. A new machine learning based multipath detection model is developed for undifferenced measurements (a single receiver approach). The approach is based on the fact that the multipath signature can be found in the multipath contaminated time series, and the features of multipath signature can be learned and identified by machine learning methods. The proposed model has been trained and validated with simulated data in an urban canyon environment with different satellite geometries. Moreover, the model has been trained and tested with real kinematic LoS and multipath data collected with a rotating arm rig in a multipath environment, and tested with multipath data collected near solar panels and near a building. The model has been tested using all available GNSS signals. The results show the model can achieve accuracy of 80%-90% with the simulated GNSS (GPS, Galileo, and BDS) data, and accuracy of 65%-70% with the real data collected using rotating arm rig on GPS L1 and GLONASS L1 signals. Real data collected near solar panels and near a building show that the well-trained model can achieve accuracy of about 60% in completely different multipath environments. The test results show the model was not well trained on GLONASS L2 and BDS data due to their carrier multipath errors are close to their carrier measurement error in ideal environment (low multipath environment).

This work proposes a method for controlling vibration transmissibility using compliant-based actuators. The compliant actuator combines a conventional actuator with elastic elements in a series configuration, such as passive springs, with the aim of controlling the vibration at important low frequencies. In contrast to the rigid actuator, a compliant actuator provides better accuracy and robustness for force control. At high frequencies, the actuator behaves like a passive spring with low impedance, providing lower output impedance and better shock resistance to the actuator than the stiff actuator. The benefits of compliant actuators for vibration control applications, demonstrated in this work, are twofold: (i) vibration reduction over a wide frequency bandwidth by passive control means; (ii) improvement of vibration control performance when active control is applied using the compliant actuator. The vibration control performance is compared with the control performance achieved using the well-known vibration absorber and conventional rigid actuator systems. The performance comparison showed that the compliant actuator provided a better flexibility in achieving vibration control over a certain frequency bandwidth. The investigation on passive and active control characteristics of the compliant actuator are conducted in relation to the compliant stiffness and damping parameters, which reveal a strong influence of the parameters to the overall passive-active vibration suppression performance. The active control characteristics are analyzed by using the Proportional and Derivative (PD) control strategy which demonstrated the capability of effectively changing the respective effective stiffness and damping of the system. These attractive dual passive-active control characteristics are therefore advantageous for achieving an effective vibration control system, particularly for controlling the vibration over a specific wide frequency bandwidth. The optimization strategy for determining the parameters of a compliant actuator to achieve effective control of vibration transmissibility is also investigated. An optimization strategy for the compliant actuator system is proposed by minimizing the H2 norm of the transfer function associated with the force transmissibility of the system, while the active control performance is investigated by using the derivative-type controller. The effectiveness of the proposed optimization strategy is demonstrated by comparison of various compliant actuator systems and the conventional rigid actuator system. It is shown that the overall passive-active control vibration performance can be improved satisfactorily. The investigation on control stability performance of the compliant actuator is also performed. The results show that the compliant actuator with varying compliant stiffness offers promising robustness and control stability for controlling vibration for the given control gain used in the system. The development of a vehicle vibration control system by integrating a compliant actuator in the existing vehicle suspension system. The compliant actuator is attached to the vehicle body and consists of a servo motor, a compliant element and a set of pinion-rack. A vehicle ride model is developed for the vibration control performance analysis, combining the vehicle suspension system with the compliant actuator model. The investigation results show that the compliant actuator can provide beneficial passive and active vibration control characteristics, particularly at low frequency region around the vehicle body resonance. The operational bandwidth of compliant actuator can be adjusted according to the selected compliant stiffness and it has the benefits of protecting the actuator against potential shocks received during vehicle ride. These benefits offer an attractive alternative for the actuator used in vehicle suspension system, compared to the conventional rigid actuator. The active vibration control results using an output feedback control demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system in reducing the vehicle body acceleration at important low frequencies. The last part of the thesis presents a case study of the proposed compliant actuator. Here, a new design of the compliant mechanism is proposed. Hence, the characteristics of a compliant mechanism are initially investigated using a flexible beam structure, which is deployed in various angle configurations. The co-rotational finite element method is used to model and simulate the dynamics behavior of the compliant mechanism. The results demonstrate that different configurations of the compliant mechanism will significantly influence the compliant stiffness, which in turn affects the vibration control performance. These properties assist in the selection of suitable control parameters for optimizing the vibration control performance, demonstrated through the force transmissibility analysis. The results show that the proposed compliant actuator with a flexible beam structure offers potentials for vibration control applications, such as for suppressing undesirable vibration normally encountered in various aerospace applications; as an alternative to a compliant actuator with a mechanical passive spring as the compliance.

The aviation community has to implement very stringent navigation integrity requirements in a variety of manned and unmanned aircraft applications. This thesis presents the results of the research activities carried out by the Italian Air Force Research and Flight Test Centre (CSV-RSV) in collaboration with the Nottingham Geospatial Institute (NGI) and RMIT University in the area of Avionics Based Integrity Augmentation (ABIA) for mission-essential and safety-critical Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) applications in the civil/military aviation context. Space and Ground Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS/GBAS) have been developed in recent years to improve GNSS integrity, accuracy and availability for aircraft navigation and particularly for landing applications. SBAS satellites broadcast correction messages back to the earth, where suitably enabled receivers use the information to improve accuracy and integrity. The US, Europe and other nations have developed their own SBAS systems. In the US, the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) exists and is operational. In Europe, SBAS coverage is provided by the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), in Japan by the Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) and India is developing the GNSS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system. An alternative approach to GNSS augmentation is to transmit integrity and correction messages from ground-based systems. An example is the American Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), which allows a suitably equipped receiver to derive enhanced accuracy and integrity information in a local area. The combination of WAAS and LAAS is targeted to provide the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) in all phases of aircraft navigation, including en-route, terminal, approach/landing and surface operations. Along with SBAS and GBAS, GNSS augmentation may take the form of additional information being provided by other avionics systems. In most cases, the additional avionics systems operate via separate principles than GNSS and, therefore, are not subject to the same sources of error or interference. A system such as this is referred to as an Aircraft Based Augmentation System (ABAS). The additional sensors used in ABAS may include Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), TACAN/VOR-DME, Radar, Vision Based Sensors, etc. Unlike SBAS and GBAS technology, research on ABAS is limited and mainly concentrates on additional information being blended into the position calculation to increase accuracy and/or continuity of the integrated navigation solutions. Additionally, no significant attempts have been made of developing ABAS architectures capable of generating integrity signals suitable for safety-critical GNSS applications (e.g., aircraft precision approach and landing) and no flight certified ABAS products are available at present. During flight test activities with GNSS and Differential GNSS (DGNSS) systems, it was observed that one or more of the following conditions was prone to cause navigation data outages or severe performance degradations: • Antenna obscuration due to aircraft manoeuvring; • Bad satellite geometries and low carrier-to-noise ratios (C/N0); • Doppler shifts caused by aircraft-satellites relative motion; • Interference, at the airborne GNSS antenna, caused by non-GNSS RF signals; • Multipath caused by GNSS signals reflected by the earth surface or the aircraft body. The last two problems can be mitigated by existing technology solutions (i.e., choosing a VHF/UHF Data Link, filtering the radio frequency signals reaching the GNSS antenna, identifying suitable locations for the GNSS antenna and providing adequate shielded of the antenna itself, either by physical devices or via dedicated software masks, etc.). However, there is little one can do in order to prevent critical events during realistic test/training manoeuvres and particular approach procedures (e.g., curved and segmented approaches) performed with high performance military aircraft. Furthermore, although in some cases a careful mission planning may significantly reduce the number of GNSS outages, the adoption of specific aircraft piloting strategies (using the information currently available in the cockpit) cannot effectively avoid the occurrence of these events. ABIA is a new concept that progressively evolved based on research with GNSS-based Time and Space Position Information (TSPI) systems. TSPI research activities included design, integration and ground/flight testing carried out on MB-339CD, TORNADO and TYPHOON military aircraft. As soon as the validity of the TSPI-ABIA (T-ABIA) concept was established, a prototype system was developed for use in flight test applications. This system is capable of alerting the pilot when the critical conditions for GNSS signal loss are likely to occur (within a specified maximum time-to-alert). In this T-ABIA prototype, the aircraft on-board sensors provide information on the aircraft relevant flight parameters (navigation data, engine settings, etc.) to an Integrity Flag Generator (IFG), which is also connected to the on-board GNSS receiver. The IFG can be incorporated into one of the existing airborne computers or can be a dedicated processing unit. Using the available data on GNSS and the aircraft flight parameters, integrity signals are generated which are displayed on one of the cockpit displays and sent to an Aural Warning Generator. At the same time, an alternate flight path is computed taking into account the geometry and the tracking status of the available GNSS satellites, together with the current mission requirements and the information provided by the aircraft Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) and standard on-board sensors. Based on the results of T-ABIA research a more advanced ABIA system was developed suitable for manned and unmanned aircraft applications. Detailed mathematical algorithms were developed to cope with the main causes of GNSS signal outages and degradation in flight, namely: obscuration, multipath, interference, fading due to adverse geometry and Doppler shift. Adopting these algorithms, the ABIA system is able to provide steering information to the pilot and electronic commands to the aircraft flight control system, allowing real-time avoidance of safety-critical flight conditions and fast recovery of the required navigation performance in case of GNSS data losses. This is achieved by implementing both caution (predictive) and warning (reactive) integrity flags, as well as 4-Dimensional Trajectory (4DT) optimisation models suitable for all phases of flight. The detailed design of the ABIA IFG module was completed and validation activities were performed on TORNADO-IDS, A-320 and AEROSONDE UAV simulated platforms to determine the Time-to-Alert (TTA) performances of the ABIA system in various flight phases from departure to final approach. The results of these activities were encouraging, showing that the system TTA performance is in line with current ICAO, FAA and CAA requirements for the different flight phases, with a potential synergy with SBAS and GBAS systems to support departure, en-route and TMA operations, including CAT-I/III precision approach. Further research concentrated on the 4DT computation module and extended the scope of ABIA applications to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). In particular, an initial investigation was accomplished to identify the potential synergies of ABIA with UAS Sense-and-Avoid (SAA) architectures for mid-air collision avoidance tasks. In conclusion, although current and likely future SBAS/GBAS augmentation systems can provide significant improvement of GNSS navigation performance, it is shown that the novel ABIA system developed in this research can play a key role in GNSS integrity augmentation for mission-essential and safety-critical applications such as aircraft precision approach/auto-landing and UAS sense-and-avoid. Furthermore, using suitable data link and data processing technologies, a certified ABIA system could play a key role as part of a future GNSS Space-Ground-Aircraft Augmentation Network (SGAAN).

The engine size of modern aircraft is principally determined by take-off conditions, since initial acceleration requires the maximum engine power. An Electromagnetic Launch (EML) system could provide some or all of the energy required during the take-off phase of the flight so that the engine power requirement and fuel use could be significantly reduced. EML also has the potential of reducing the required runway length by increasing aircraft acceleration. Expensive airport extensions to face constant air traffic growth might then be avoided by allowing large aircraft to operate from short runways at small airports. The proposed system has positive impacts on total aircraft noise and exhaust emissions near airports and improves overall aircraft efficiency through reducing engine design constraints. So far, EML for aircraft has been adopted only for military applications to replace steam catapults on the deck of aircraft carriers. This thesis considers the feasibility of different technologies for EML systems to assist civil aircraft takeoff. The research develops, models, designs and compares three possible linear motor topologies which may be used to propel an A320-200 sized aircraft up to the take-off speed. The theories exploited to design the motors are thoroughly explained while the comparison of the performance is made on results from both analytical and finite element analysis (FEA). The work is validated using a small experimental setup to launch a UAV weighing 4.5 kg. The electromagnetic analysis developed for civil aircraft launchers has been employed to size the scaled down motors and the methods proposed to design all the other components of the test rig are also presented.

No description available.

Unmasking Aircraft and Rotorcraft Pilot Couplings (A/RPC) prior to vehicle entry into service has been a long standing challenge in the Aerospace Industry. A/RPCs, often only exposed through unpredictable or very specifc circumstances have arisen throughout the history of manned powered ight, and have required short-term 'fixes' to ensure system safety. One of the reasons for this occurrence is th lack of detailed practice regarding the prediction and detection of RPCs prior to full-scale testing. Often in simulation, A/RPCs are only investigated once problems have been experienced during other aircraft qualifcation activities. This is a particular issue for the rotorcraft community, where system sophistication is 'catching-up' with their fixed-wing counterparts. This research helps to extend the state-of-art knowledge surrounding the exposure of RPCs prior to any catastrophic occurrences, through the introduction of novel tools for use both in the rotorcraft design process and beyond. Using key definitions and findings from previous research efforts, objective and subjective measures have been developed for use in both real-time piloted flight and for pre- or post-flight analysis. These tools have been designed to compliment one another, in a process that should reduce the susceptibility to RPC in future rotorcraft. Novel tools developed have been tested through real-time piloted simulation, with results allowing RPC susceptibility boundaries and regions to be identified. Application of all tools developed, both subjective and objective, have been validated through comparison with existing methods. This work provides novel methods to quantify both the propensity of pilot-vehicle systems to RPCs, and the severity of these interactions. Methods have been designed with simplicity of use in mind, whereby they can be applied to vehicles of different configuration, are applicable to a wide range of RPCs, and are easily understandable for prospective users. It is believed that research contained within can contribute to the realisation of European Commission 2020 objectives, by helping to reduce the average accident rate of global aircraft operators.

Neural data often span multiple indices, such as neuron, experimental condition, trial, and time, resulting in a tensor or multidimensional array. Standard approaches to neural data analysis often rely on matrix factorization techniques, such as principal component analysis or nonnegative matrix factorization. Any inherent tensor structure in the data is lost when flattened into a matrix. Here, we analyze datasets from primary motor cortex from the perspective of tensor analysis, and develop a theory for how tensor structure relates to certain computational properties of the underlying system. Applied to the motor cortex datasets, we reveal that neural activity is best described by condition-independent dynamics as opposed to condition-dependent relations to external movement variables. Motivated by this result, we pursue one further tensor-related analysis, and two further dynamical systems-related analyses. First, we show how tensor decompositions can be used to denoise neural signals. Second, we apply system identification to the cortex- to-muscle transformation to reveal the intermediate spinal dynamics. Third, we fit recurrent neural networks to muscle activations and show that the geometric properties observed in motor cortex are naturally recapitulated in the network model. Taken together, these results emphasize (on the data analysis side) the role of tensor structure in data and (on the theoretical side) the role of motor cortex as a dynamical system.