To enable a crewed mission to Mars, precision landing capabilities of Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) systems must be improved. The need for larger payloads, higher landing sites, and controllability has motivated the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to invest in new technologies to replace traditional rigid aeroshell systems, which are limited in size by the payload envelope of existing launch vehicles. A Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) is an emerging technology that provides an increased drag area by inflating the aeroshell to diameters not possible with rigid aeroshells, allowing the vehicle to decelerate higher in the atmosphere, offering access to higher landing sites with more timeline margin. To enable a crewed mission to Mars, future entry vehicles will require precision landing capabilities that go beyond heritage EDL guidance strategies that utilize fuel-intensive and error-prone bank reversals. A novel Direct Force Control (DFC) approach of independently controlling the lift and side force of a vehicle that utilizes a HIAD with an aerodynamic shape morphing capability is proposed. To date, the mechanisms and controls required to morph an inflatable structure to generate lift have not been explored. In this dissertation, novel morphing HIAD concepts are investigated and designed to satisfy mission requirements, aerodynamic tools are built to assess the aerodynamic performance of morphed blunt body shapes, and a structural feasibility study is performed using models correlated to test data to determine the forces required to generate the desired shape change based on a crewed mission to Mars. A novel control methodology is introduced by applying a unique DFC strategy to a morphing HIAD to enhance precision landing capabilities of EDL systems, and the ability of a morphing HIAD to safely land a vehicle on Mars is assessed by performing a closed-loop feedback simulation for a Mars entry trajectory. Finally, a control mechanism is demonstrated on a small-scale inflatable structure. Conclusions and contributions of this research are presented along with a discussion of future research opportunities of morphing HIADs. / PHD / A Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) is a reentry vehicle designed to inflate the aeroshell to diameters outside of the payload shroud to decelerate the vehicle higher in the atmosphere, offering access to higher landing sites with more timeline margin. To enable a crewed mission to Mars, the landing accuracy of a HIAD must be significantly improved beyond heritage bank angle control approaches that are fuel-intensive and prone to errors. A novel Direct Force Control (DFC) approach is proposed that permits direct control of the angle of attack and sideslip by morphing the inflatable shape of the HIAD to enable its precision landing capabilities. A morphing HIAD concept is proposed in this dissertation to satisfy the requirements of landing humans successfully on Mars. Aerodynamic tools are built to assess the aerodynamic performance of morphed blunt body shapes, and structural models correlated with test data are created to determine the forces required to generate the desired shape change. Novel DFC methodologies are introduced and applied to a morphing HIAD system, a motor sizing study is performed to compare the total energy usage and cost and weight estimates of the morphing HIAD to heritage control systems, and a Mars entry trajectory simulation is performed to assess the capability of a morphing HIAD to safely land a crewed vehicle on Mars. Finally, a control mechanism is demonstrated on a small-scale inflatable structure. Conclusions and contributions of this research are presented along with a discussion of future research opportunities of morphing HIADs.

The morphing of aircraft wings for flight control started as a necessity for the Wright Brothers but quickly fell out of favor as aircraft increased speed. Currently morphing aircraft control is one of many ideas being explored as we seek to improve aircraft efficiency, reduce noise, and other alternative aircraft solutions. The conventional hinged control surface took over as the predominant method for control due to its simplicity and allowing stiffer wings to be built. With modern technologies in variable stiffness materials, actuators, and design methods, a morphing control surface, which considers deforming a significant portion of the wing's surface continuously, can be considered. While many have considered morphing designs on the scale of small and medium size UAVs, few look at it for full-size commercial transport aircraft. One promising technology in this field is the flexible matrix composite (FMC) actuator. This muscle-like actuator can be embedded with the deformable structure and unlike many other actuators continue to actuate with the morphing of the structure. This was demonstrated in the FMC active spoiler prototype, which was a full-scale benchtop prototype, demonstrated to perform under closed-loop control for both the required deflection and load cases. Based on this FMC active spoiler concept a morphing aileron design was examined. To do this an analysis coupling the structure, fluid, and FMC actuator models was created. This allows for optimization of the design with the objectives of minimizing the hydraulic energy required and mass of the system by varying the layout of the FMC aileron, the material properties used, and the actuator's design and placement with the morphing section. Based on a commercial transport aircraft a design case was developed to investigate the optimal design of a morphing aileron using the developed analysis tool. The optimization looked at minimizing the mass and energy requirements of the morphing aileron and was subject to a series of constraints developed from the design case and the physical limitations of the system. A Pareto front was developed for these two objectives and the resulting designs along the Pareto front explored. From this optimization, a series of design guidelines were developed. / Ph. D. / This work looks at an aircraft morphing control surface design on the scale of commercial transport aircraft. A design is developed and demonstrated through bench top prototype testing and through analysis. The morphing control surface uses flexible matrix composite (FMC) actuators. These unique actuators are muscle like, using hydraulic pressure to create a contractive actuator. Unlike a simple hydraulic piston, the FMC actuators are capable of bending with the morphing structure during actuation. Through optimization of the morphing control surface design a set of design guidelines were developed to guide future design.

The application of smart materials to control the flight dynamics of a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) has numerous benefits over traditional servomechanisms. Under study is wing morphing achieved through the use of piezoelectric Macro Fiber Composites (MFCs). These devices exhibit low power draw but excellent bandwidth characteristics. This thesis provides a background in the 2D analytical and computer modeling tools and methods needed to design and characterize an MFC-actuated airfoil. A composite airfoil is designed with embedded MFCs in a bimorph configuration. The deflection capabilities under actuation are predicted with the commercial finite element package NX Nastran. Placement of the piezoelectric actuator is studied for optimal effectiveness. A thermal analogy is used to represent piezoelectric strain. Lift and drag coefficients in low Reynolds number flow are explored with XFOIL. Predictions are made on static aeroelastic effects. The thin, cambered Generic Micro Aerial Vehicle (GenMAV) airfoil is fabricated with a bimorph actuator. Experimental data are taken with and without aerodynamic loading to validate the computer model. This is accomplished with in-house 2D wind tunnel testing. / Master of Science

[Truncated abstract] Image transition effects are commonly used on television and human computer interfaces. The transition between images creates a perception of continuity which has aesthetic value in special effects and practical value in visualisation. The work in this thesis demonstrates that better image transition effects are obtained by incorporating properties of projective geometry into image transition algorithms. Current state-of-the-art techniques can be classified into two main categories namely shape interpolation and warp generation. Many shape interpolation algorithms aim to preserve rigidity but none preserve it with perspective effects. Most warp generation techniques focus on smoothness and lack the rigidity of perspective mapping. The affine transformation, a commonly used mapping between triangular patches, is rigid but not able to model perspective effects. Image transition techniques from the view interpolation community are effective in creating transitions with the correct perspective effect, however, those techniques usually require more feature points and algorithms of higher complexity. The motivation of this thesis is to enable different views of a planar surface to be interpolated with an appropriate perspective effect. The projective geometric relationship which produces the perspective effect can be specified by two quadrilaterals. This problem is equivalent to finding a perspectively appropriate interpolation for projective transformation matrices. I present two algorithms that enable smooth perspective transition between planar surfaces. The algorithms only require four point correspondences on two input images. ...The second algorithm generates transitions between shapes that lie on the same plane which exhibits a strong perspective effect. It recovers the perspective transformation which produces the perspective effect and constrains the transition so that the in-between shapes also lie on the same plane. For general image pairs with multiple quadrilateral patches, I present a novel algorithm that is transitionally symmetrical and exhibits good rigidity. The use of quadrilaterals, rather than triangles, allows an image to be represented by a small number of primitives. This algorithm uses a closed form force equilibrium scheme to correct the misalignment of the multiple transitional quadrilaterals. I also present an application for my quadrilateral interpolation algorithm in Seitz and Dyer's view morphing technique. This application automates and improves the calculation of the reprojection homography in the postwarping stage of their technique. Finally I unify different image transition research areas into a common framework, this enables analysis and comparison of the techniques and the quality of their results. I highlight that quantitative measures can greatly facilitate the comparisons among different techniques and present a quantitative measure based on epipolar geometry. This novel quantitative measure enables the quality of transitions between images of a scene from different viewpoints to be quantified by its estimated camera path.

Thesis (MSc (Mathematical Sciences. Applied Mathematics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Image morphing is a popular technique used to create spectacular visual effects, by gradually transforming one image into another. This thesis explains what exactly is meant by the terms “image morphing” / “warping”, where it is used and how it is done. A few existing morphing techniques are described and finally an implementation using Delaunay triangulation and texture mapping is presented.

No description available.

A triangulação de Delaunay de um conjunto de pontos é uma importante entidade geométrica cujas aplicações abrangem diversas áreas da ciência. Triangulações regulares, que podem ser vistas como uma generalização da triangulação de Delaunay, onde pesos são associados aos vértices, também têm sido aplicadas em diversos problemas como reconstrução a partir de nuvens de pontos [5], geração de malha [12], modelagem molecular [7] e muitos outros. Apesar de ser muito utilizada, a fundamentação teórica referente à triangulação regular ainda não está tão desenvolvida quanto para triangulação de Delaunay. Por exemplo, pouco se sabe a respeito da dinâmica de uma triangulação regular [22] quando os pesos associados aos vértices mudam. Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal desenvolver um arcabouço teórico e computacional que permita representar uma triangulação qualquer como uma triangulação regular. Para isso, um estudo da dinâmica das operações de flip frente à variação de pesos nos vértices deve ser realizado. Este estudo tem como base o mapeamento da triangulação em um politopo que define os possíveis pesos para os vértices. Tal politopo pode ser obtido por meio de um sistema de inequações que gera um problema de programação linear cuja solução fornece os pesos adequados. A transformação de uma triangulação qualquer em triangulação regular permite o desenvolvimento de novas técnicas de morphing entre malhas e algoritmos para modelar níveis de detalhe, sendo este mais um objetivo deste trabalho / Delaunay triangulation of a set of points is an important geometrical entity whose applications encompass a range of scientfic fields. Regular triangulations, which can be seen as a generalization of Delaunay triangulation where weights are assigned to vertices, have also been widely employed in several problems, as for example mesh reconstruction from point clouds [5], mesh generation [12] and molecular modelling [7]. In spite of their applicability, the theoretical background of regular triangulations is not so developed as the theory of Delaunay triangulation. For example, the dynamic of regular triangulation is not completely known when the vertices weights change [22]. This work aims at developing a computational and theoretical framework that allow to represent a given triangulation as a regular triangulation. In this context, an investigation into the dynamic of edge ip operations regarding changes in the vertices weight must be accomplished. This investigation is based on mapping the triangulation in a polytope that defines the space of vertices weights. Such polytope can be built from an inequation system that can be associate to a linear program problem whose solution supplies the appropriated weights. By representing a triangulation as a regular triangulation one can conceive a new mesh morphing scheme and level of detail algorithm, being this another goal of this work

Os recentes desenvolvimentos na tecnologia de sistema aeronáutico de geometria variável têm sido motivados principalmente pela necessidade de melhorar o desempenho de aeronaves. O conceito de Morphing Aircraft, por meio da variação da linha de arqueamento, representa uma alternativa para sistemas aeronáuticos mais eficientes. No entanto, para aeronaves de alto desempenho, projetos com estes novos conceitos podem gerar reações aeroelásticas adversas, o que representa uma questão importante e pode vir a limitar esses novos projetos. A compreensão adequada do comportamento aeroelástico devido à variação da linha de arqueamento, particularmente em regimes transônico, compreende uma questão importante. Este trabalho consiste num estudo preliminar das consequências aeroelásticas de um sistema aeronáutico de geometria variável. O objetivo desse trabalho é explorar as repostas aeroelásticas transônicas de um aerofólio com arqueamento variável no tempo. A metodologia para análise aeroelástica é baseada num modelo de seção típica. A integração no tempo do sistema aeroelástico é obtida pelo método de Runge-Kutta de quarta ordem. A representação do escoamento transônico não estacionário foi computada por um código CFD em um contexto de malhas não estruturadas com uma formulação dada pelas equações de Euler-2D. Esses resultados preliminares podem fornecer aos projetistas informações importantes sobre as respostas aeroelásticas de um sistema aeronáutico com variação da linha de arqueamento, permitindo estabelecer um quadro adequado para futuras investigações de controle aeroelástico de sistema aeronáutico de geometria variável. / Recent developments on aircraft variable geometry technologies have been mainly motivated by the need for improving the flight performance. The morphing wing concept, by means of variable camber, represents an alternative towards more efficient lifting surfaces. However, for higher performance aircraft, this technology may lead to designs that create unsteady loads, which may result in adverse aeroelastic responses, which represents an important and limiting issue. Proper understanding of the aeroelastic behavior, particularly in transonic flight regimes, due to variations in camber comprises an important matter. This work is a primary study of aeroelastic consequences of an real-time adaptive aircraft. The objective of this work is to investigate prescribed variations to airfoil camberline and their influence to the aeroelastic response in transonic flight regime. The methodology is based on computational simulations of typical section with unsteady transonic aerodynamics solved with a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. The time integration of the aeroelastic system is obtained by Runge-Kutta fourth order. The unsteady transonic flow was computed by a CFD code based on the 2D-Euler equations with unstructured mesh. Prescribed camber variation of a symmetrical airfoil is transferred to the CFD mesh, and aeroelastic responses and loading is assessed. These preliminary results may provide the designers valuable information on the interaction between changes in camber during airfoil aeroelastic reactions, allowing establishing an adequate framework for further aeroelastic control investigations of morphing wings.

A triangulação de Delaunay de um conjunto de pontos é uma importante entidade geométrica cujas aplicações abrangem diversas áreas da ciência. Triangulações regulares, que podem ser vistas como uma generalização da triangulação de Delaunay, onde pesos são associados aos vértices, também têm sido aplicadas em diversos problemas como reconstrução a partir de nuvens de pontos [5], geração de malha [12], modelagem molecular [7] e muitos outros. Apesar de ser muito utilizada, a fundamentação teórica referente à triangulação regular ainda não está tão desenvolvida quanto para triangulação de Delaunay. Por exemplo, pouco se sabe a respeito da dinâmica de uma triangulação regular [22] quando os pesos associados aos vértices mudam. Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal desenvolver um arcabouço teórico e computacional que permita representar uma triangulação qualquer como uma triangulação regular. Para isso, um estudo da dinâmica das operações de flip frente à variação de pesos nos vértices deve ser realizado. Este estudo tem como base o mapeamento da triangulação em um politopo que define os possíveis pesos para os vértices. Tal politopo pode ser obtido por meio de um sistema de inequações que gera um problema de programação linear cuja solução fornece os pesos adequados. A transformação de uma triangulação qualquer em triangulação regular permite o desenvolvimento de novas técnicas de morphing entre malhas e algoritmos para modelar níveis de detalhe, sendo este mais um objetivo deste trabalho / Delaunay triangulation of a set of points is an important geometrical entity whose applications encompass a range of scientfic fields. Regular triangulations, which can be seen as a generalization of Delaunay triangulation where weights are assigned to vertices, have also been widely employed in several problems, as for example mesh reconstruction from point clouds [5], mesh generation [12] and molecular modelling [7]. In spite of their applicability, the theoretical background of regular triangulations is not so developed as the theory of Delaunay triangulation. For example, the dynamic of regular triangulation is not completely known when the vertices weights change [22]. This work aims at developing a computational and theoretical framework that allow to represent a given triangulation as a regular triangulation. In this context, an investigation into the dynamic of edge ip operations regarding changes in the vertices weight must be accomplished. This investigation is based on mapping the triangulation in a polytope that defines the space of vertices weights. Such polytope can be built from an inequation system that can be associate to a linear program problem whose solution supplies the appropriated weights. By representing a triangulation as a regular triangulation one can conceive a new mesh morphing scheme and level of detail algorithm, being this another goal of this work

Morphing air vehicles enable more efficient and capable multi-role aircraft by adapting their shape to reach an ideal configuration in an ever-changing environment. Morphing capability is envisioned to have a profound impact on the future of the aerospace industry, and a reconfigurable wing is a significant element of a morphing aircraft. This thesis develops two tools for analyzing wing configurations with multiple geometric degrees-of-freedom: the structural tool and the aerodynamic and structural interaction tool. Linear Space Frame Finite Element Analysis with Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is used to develop the structural analysis morphing tool for modeling a given wing structure with variable geometric parameters including wing span, aspect ratio, sweep angle, dihedral angle, chord length, thickness, incidence angle, and twist angle. The structural tool is validated with linear Euler-Bernoulli beam models using a commercial finite element software program, and the tool is shown to match within 1% compared to all test cases. The verification of the structural tool uses linear and nonlinear Timoshenko beam models, 3D brick element wing models at various sweep angles, and a complex wing structural model of an existing aircraft. The beam model verification demonstrated the tool matches the Timoshenko models within 3%, but the comparisons to complex wing models show the limitations of modeling a wing structure using beam elements. The aerodynamic and structural interaction tool is developed to integrate a constant strength source doublet panel method aerodynamic tool, developed externally to this work, with the structural tool. The load results provided by the aerodynamic tool are used as inputs to the structural tool, giving a quasi-static aeroelastically deflected wing shape. An iterative version of the interaction tool uses the deflected wing shape results from the structural tool as new inputs for the aerodynamic tool in order to investigate the geometric convergence of an aeroelastically deflected wing shape. The findings presented in this thesis show that geometric convergence of the deflected wing shape is not attained using the chosen iterative method, but other potential methods are proposed for future work. The tools presented in the thesis are capable of modeling a wide range of wing configurations, and they may ultimately be utilized by Machine Learning algorithms to learn the ideal wing configuration for given flight conditions and develop control laws for a flyable morphing air vehicle.