Solving the optimal open-loop control problems for spacecraft large-angle attitude maneuvers generally requires the use of numerical techniques whose reliability is strongly case dependent. The primary goal of this dissertation is to increase the solution reliability of the associated nonlinear two-point boundary-value problems as derived from Pontryagin’s Principle. Major emphasis is placed upon the formulation of the best possible starting or nominal solution. Constraint relationships among the state and costate variables are utilized. A hybrid approach which begins with the direct gradient method and ends with the indirect method of particular solutions is proposed. Test case results which indicate improved reliability are presented. The nonlinear optimal control law derived from iterative procedures cannot adjust itself in accordance with state deviations measured during the control period. A real-time near-optimal guidance scheme which takes the perturbed states to the desired manifold by tracking a given optimal trajectory is also proposed. Numerical simulations are presented which show that highly accurate tracking results can be achieved. / Ph. D.

The field of guided projectile research has continually grown over the past several decades. Guided projectiles, typically encompassing bullets, mortars, and artillery shells, incorporate some sort of guidance and control mechanism to generate trajectory alterations. This serves to increase accuracy and decrease collateral damage. Control mechanisms for smart weapons must be able to withstand extreme acceleration loads at launch while remain simple for cost and reliability reasons. One type of control mechanism utilizes controllable internal translating masses (ITM's) that oscillate within the projectile to generate control forces. Several techniques for using internal translating masses for smart weapon flight control purposes are explored here. Specifically, the use of ITM's as direct control mechanisms, as a means to increase control authority, and as a means to protect the smart weapons sensor suite are examined. It is first shown that oscillating a mass orthogonal to the projectile axis of symmetry generates reasonable control force in statically-stable rounds. Trade studies examine the impact of mass size, mass offset from the center of gravity, and reductions in static stability on control authority. Then, the topic of static margin control through mass center modification is explored. This is accomplished by translating a mass in flight along the projectile axis of symmetry. Results show that this system allows for greater control authority and reduced throw-off error at launch. Another study, aimed at examining shock reduction potential at launch rather than static margin alteration, also considers ITM movement along the projectile centerline. In these studies, the ITM is comprised of sensitive electronic sensors, and is configured as a first-order damper during launch. Trade study results show that although the mechanism cannot substantially reduce the magnitude of launch loads, it is successful at dampening harmful structural vibrations typically experienced after muzzle exit. Finally, an active control system is developed for the ITM control mechanism using sliding mode methodology. Example cases and Monte Carlo simulations incorporating model uncertainties and sensor errors show that ITM control of projectiles can substantially reduce dispersion error. Furthermore, the novel sliding mode control law is shown to be highly robust to feedback disturbances. In a final study, combined ITM-canard control of projectiles is explored, concluding that ITM mechanisms can serve as a useful supplement in increasing the efficiency of currently-deployed control mechanisms.

Current renewed interest in exploration of the moon, Mars, and other planetary objects is driving technology development in many fields of space system design. In particular, there is a desire to land both robotic and human missions on the moon and elsewhere. The core of a successful landing is a robust guidance, navigation, and control system (GN&C). In particular, the landing guidance system must be able to deliver the vehicle from an orbit above the planet to a desired soft landing, while meeting several constraints necessary for the safety of the vehicle. In addition, due to the performance limitations of current launch vehicles, it is desired to minimize the amount of propellant used during the landing. To make matters even more complicated, the landing site may change in real-time in order to avoid previously undetected hazards which become apparent during the landing maneuver. The Apollo program relied heavily on the eyes of the astronauts to avoid such hazards through manual control. However, for missions to the lunar polar regions, poor lighting conditions will make this much more difficult; for robotic missions, this is not an option. It is desired to find a solution to the landing problem such that the fuel used is minimized while meeting constraints on the initial state, final state, bounded thrust acceleration magnitude, and bounded pitch attitude. With the assumptions of constant gravity and negligible atmosphere, the form of the optimal steering law is found, and the equations of motion are integrated analytically, resulting in a system of five equations in five unknowns. When the pitch over constraint is ignored, it is shown that this system of equations can be reduced analytically to two equations in two unknowns. In addition, when an assumption of a constant thrust acceleration magnitude is made, this system can be reduced further to one equation in one unknown. It is shown that these unknowns can be bounded analytically. An algorithm is developed to quickly and reliably solve the resulting one-dimensional bounded search. The algorithm is used as a real-time guidance and is applied to lunar and Mars landing test cases. / text

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is exploring technologies to provide low-cost precision fires, applicable across both direct and indirect fire weapon systems. One of these applications involves a forward observer (FO) designating the target with a laser spot and a seeker on-board the munition detecting the reflected energy to allow terminal guidance. This approach, referred to as semi-active laser (SAL) guidance, has been utilized on numerous air-delivered munitions to include bombs, missiles and projectiles. However, the cost of these systems, driven by high quality optics, high sensitivity detectors and specialized electronics, has hampered their migration into gun-fired munitions such as mortars, artillery and grenades. To explore, develop and demonstrate minimal cost solutions, ARL invested in an Army Technical Objective (ATO) called Smaller, Lighter, Cheaper Munition Components (SLCMC). Specifically, SAL seeker hardware, predicated upon commercial components (COTS) and mass production techniques, is being prototyped for use with gun launched projectiles and laser target designators. The seeker system is comprised of several printed circuit board boards, a microprocessor, a quad-photo detector and, a molded optical lens unit. This seeker is designed to rapidly update the projectile boresight angle, interface with other strap-down sensors, and feed data into an on-board guidance, navigation & control (G,N&C) system to allow for projectile maneuvers. The seeker design and basic characteristics are discussed and presented through-out the paper and presentation.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / A real time attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) was successfully implemented for use on an airship. The AHRS was tested on board a small airship (blimp) with real data supplied from the inertial measurement unit and GPS receiver. The inertial measurement unit was built with lower grade sensors, resulting in significant reductions in component cost. To ensure accurate navigation results, the high rate inertial measurements were complemented with low rate GPS velocity and position updates in an extended Kalman filter configuration. A study was made of various Kalman filter configurations, especially the possibility of splitting a big Kalman filter into smaller Kalman filters. It was found that the best trade-off between accuracy and processing power was achieved by having two smaller Kalman filters running in sequence. The first extended Kalman filter estimates the attitude of the airship, while the second extended Kalman filter estimates the velocity and position of the airship. The two smaller Kalman filters were implemented on an onboard computer to provide real time estimates of the attitude, velocity and position of the airship.

Modern commercial air travel is considered by most transportation specialists to be the safest of all forms of transportation. While safe, any loss of life is tragic and the only really acceptable state of commercial air transport safety is that of 'zero-tolerance' where no accident is acceptable. Research has demonstrated that the largest single causal component for airline accidents is the flightcrew. In addition, the recent automation of these machines has created many new safety concerns involving flightcrew situational awareness, human-machine interfacing, workload, attention, and complexity, to name a few. These concerns led to a series of studies developing, refining, and testing numerous aspects of this issue. The studies incorporated ASRS (Aviation Safety Reporting System) incident reports, NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and other accident reports, and the development of a CTM (cockpit task management) system. The information gained from this research led to the development of an agent-based cockpit task aiding system termed the AgendaManager. A traditional text-based display similar to that used in the CTMS study was developed, optimized, and integrated with existing systems like EICAS (Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System) using a visual display development guide developed from a literature review. An alternate display incorporating graphics and located on the primary flight display (PFD) was also developed in an effort to improve pilot agenda management performance. Both of the interfaces were developed using a comprehensive visual display design guide compiled through a literature review. The Agenda Manager displays were tested in order to determine if the PFD enhancements improved agenda management performance. Eleven general aviation pilots participated in the study, three in the pilot study and eight in the main study. Results from the main study indicate little, if any, difference in agenda management performance in regards to the display format used. In general, the study demonstrated the usefulness of the display guidelines, importance of tracking instrument rating when using general aviation pilots in an experiment, and the equivalence of 'round-trip' scenarios. / Graduation date: 1998

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 42 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, April 2016 / A Rotary Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (RW UAV) as a platform and its payload consisting of sophisticated sensors would be costly items. Hence, a RW UAV in the 500 kg class designed to fulfil a number of missions would represent a considerable capital outlay for any customer. Therefore, in the event of an engine failure, a means should be provided to get the craft safely back on the ground without incurring damage or causing danger to the surrounding area. The aim of the study was to design a controller for autorotative landing of a RW UAV in the event of engine failure. In order to design a controller for autorotative landing, an acceleration model was used obtained from a study by Stanford University. FLTSIM helicopter flight simulation package yielded necessary RW UAV response data for the autorotation regimes. The response data was utilized in identifying the unknown parameters in the acceleration model. A Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) control algorithm was designed to compute the main and tail rotor collective pitch and the longitudinal and lateral cyclic pitch control inputs to safely land the craft. The results obtained were compared to the FLTSIM flight simulation response data. It was noted that the mathematical model could not accurately model the pitch dynamics. The main rotor dynamics were modelled satisfactorily and which are important in autorotation because without power from the engine, the energy in main rotor is critical in a successful execution of an autorotative landing. Stanford University designed a controller for RC helicopter, XCell Tempest, which was deemed successful. However, the DDP controller was designed for autonomous autorotative landing of RW UAV weighing 560 kg, following engine failure. The DDP controller has the ability to control the RW UAV in an autorotation landing but the study should be taken further to improve certain aspects such as the pitch dynamics and which can possibly be achieved through online parameter estimation. / MT 2017

In this dissertation, guidance and control of autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are explored. Specifically, we investigate model reference adaptive control (MRAC) based systems for tailsitter UAS, and guidance and control of multi-rotor UAS for tactical maneuvering and coverage. Applications, both current and potential, are investigated and gaps in existing technologies are identified. To address the controls problem of a particular class of tailsitter UAS, that is, quadrotor-biplanes, subject to modeling uncertainties, unmodeled payloads, wind gusts, and actuator faults and failures, two approaches are developed. In the first approach, the longitudinal dynamics of a tailsitter UAS are regulated using an MRAC law for prescribed performance and output tracking in a novel control architecture. The MRAC law for prescribed performance and output tracking incorporates a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) baseline controller using integral-feedback interconnections. Constraints on the trajectory tracking error are enforced using barrier Lyapunov functions, and a user-defined rate of convergence of the trajectory tracking error is guaranteed by employing a reference model for the trajectory tracking error's transient dynamics. In this control system, the translational and rotational dynamics are split into an outer loop and an inner loop, respectively, to account for the underactuation of the quadrotor-biplane. In the outer loop, estimates of the aerodynamic forces and MRAC laws are used to stabilize the translational dynamics. Furthermore, the reference pitch angle is deduced such that the vehicle's total thrust never points towards the Earth for safety, and discontinuities inherent to the signed arctangent function commonly used for determining orientations are avoided. In the inner loop, estimates of the aerodynamic moment and an MRAC law are used to stabilize the rotational dynamics. A law for determining the desired total thrust is proposed, which ensures that if the vehicle's orientation is close enough to the desired orientation, then the proper thrust force is applied. A control allocation scheme is presented to ensure that the desired moment of the thrust force is always realized, and constraints on the non-negativity of the thrust force produced by the actuators are satisfied. The proposed control architecture employing MRAC for prescribed performance and output signal tracking is validated in simulation, and the MRAC law for prescribed performance is compared to the classical MRAC law. In the second approach, a unified control architecture based on MRAC is presented which does not separate the longitudinal and lateral-directional dynamics. The translational and rotational dynamics are separated into outer and inner loops, respectively, to address the underactuation of the tailsitter UAS. Since it is expected that the vehicle will undergo large rotations, the tailsitter's orientation is captured using quaternions, which are singularity-free. Furthermore, the windup phenomenon is addressed by employing barrier Lyapunov functions to ensure that the first component of the tracking error quaternion is positive, and thus, the shortest rotation is followed to drive the vehicle's current orientation to the reference orientation. In the outer loop, the desired thrust force is determined using estimates of the aerodynamic forces and an MRAC law. The reference orientation is determined as a solution of the orthogonal Procrustes' problem, which finds the smallest rotation from the current orientation of the thrust force, to the orientation of th desired thrust force. The angular velocity and acceleration cannot be deduced by taking the time derivative of the solution of the orthogonal Procrustes' problem due to the discontinuous nature of the singular value decomposition. Therefore, the twice continuously differentiable function, spherical linear interpolation, is used to find a geodesic joining the unit quaternion capturing the vehicle's current orientation, and the unit quaternion capturing the reference orientation. An interesting result is that the angular velocity and acceleration depend only on the first and second derivatives of the scalar-valued function which parameterizes the spherical linear interpolation function; the actual function is immaterial. However, determining the shape of this function is nontrivial, and hence, an approach inspired by model predictive control is used. In the inner loop, estimates of the aerodynamic moment and an MRAC law are used to stabilize the rotational dynamics, and the thrust force is allocated to the individual propellers. The validity of the proposed control scheme is presented in simulation. An integrated guidance and control system for autonomous UAS is proposed to maneuver in an unknown, dynamic, and potentially hostile environment in a reckless or tactical manner as prescribed by the user. Tactical maneuvering in this guidance and control system is enabled through exploitation of obstacles in the environment for shelter as the vehicle approaches its goal. Reckless maneuvering is enabled by ignoring the presence of nearby obstacles while proceeding towards the goal, while remaining collision-free. The demarcation of reckless and tactical behaviors are bio-inspired, since these tactics are used by animals or ground-based troops. The guidance system fuses a path planner, collision-avoidance algorithm, vision-based navigation system, and a trajectory planner. The path planner is based on the A* search algorithm, and a custom tunable cost-to-come and heuristic function are proposed to enable the exploitation of the obstacles' set for shelter by decreasing the weight of edges in the underlying graph that capture nodes close to the obstacles' set. The consistency of the heuristic is established, and hence, the search algorithm will return an optimal solution, and not expand nodes multiple times. In realistic scenarios, fast replanning is necessary to ensure that the system realizes the desired behavior, and does not collide with obstacles. The trajectory planner is based on fast model predictive control (fMPC), and thus, can be executed in real time. A custom tunable cost function, which weighs the importance of proximity to the obstacles' set and proximity to the goal, is employed to provide another mechanism for enabling tactical behaviors. The novel collision avoidance algorithm is based on the solution of a particular class of semidefinite programming problems, that is, quadratic discrimination. The collision avoidance algorithm produces convex sets of free space near the UAS by finding ellipsoids that separate the UAS from the obstacles' set. The convex sets are used in the fMPC framework as inequality constraints. The collision avoidance algorithm's computational burden is determined empirically, and is shown to be faster than two similar algorithms in the literature. The modules above are integrated into a single guidance system, which supplies reference trajectories to an arbitrary control system, and the validity of the proposed approach is exhibited in several simulations and flight tests. Furthermore, a taxonomy of flight behaviors is presented to understand how the tunable parameters affect the recklessness or stealthiness of the resulting trajectory. Lastly, an integrated guidance and control system for autonomous UAS performing tactical coverage in an unknown, dynamic, and potentially hostile environment in a reckless or tactical manner as prescribed by the user is presented. The guidance problem for coverage concerns strategies and route planning for gathering information about an environment. The aim of gathering information about an unknown environment is to aid in situational awareness and planning for service organizations and first-responders. To address this problem, goal selection, path planning, collision avoidance, and trajectory planning are integrated. A novel goal selection algorithm based on the Octree data structure is proposed to autonomously determine goal points for the path planner. In this algorithm, voxel maps deduced by a navigation system, which capture the occupancy and exploration status of areas of the environment, are segmented into partitions that capture large unexplored areas, and large explored areas. Large unexplored areas are used as candidates for goal points. The feasibility of goal points is determined by employing a greedy $A^*$ technique. The algorithm boasts tunable parameters that allow the user to specify a greedy or systematic behavior when determining a sequence of goal points. The computational burden of this technique is determined empirically, and is shown to be useful for real-time use in realistic scenarios. The path planner is based on the Lifelong Planning $A^*$ ($LPA^*$) search algorithm which is shown to have advantages over the $A^*$ technique. A custom tunable cost-to-come and heuristic function are proposed to enable tactical or reckless path planning. A novel collision avoidance algorithm is proposed as an improved version of the aforementioned collision avoidance algorithm, where the volume of the resulting constraint sets are improved, and thus, more of the free space is captured by the convex set, and hence, the trajectory planner can exploit more of the environment for tactical maneuvering. This algorithm is based on semidefinite programming and a fast approximate convex hull algorithm. The trajectory planner is based on fMPC, employs a custom cost function to enable tactical maneuvering by coasting the surface of obstacles and regulation of the desired acceleration as a function of proximity to shelter, employs barrier functions to constrain the attitude of the vehicle and ensure thrust positivity, and employs a quadrotor UAS' output feedback linearized equations of motion as differential constraints to enable aggressive maneuvering. The efficacy of the proposed system is validated using a custom-made C++ simulator. / Doctor of Philosophy / In recent years, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) such as quadcopters, hexacopters, and octocopters, have seen increased popularity for a myriad of applications including crop monitoring, photography, surveying, surveillance, wireless network extension, search and rescue, firefighter support, and military operations, to name a few. This list of applications stems from UAS' maneuverability, adaptability, accessibility, and their absence of an onboard pilot. While some of these applications can be executed with current capabilities, the performance of these systems could be improved, and there are many applications where UAS could be used to fulfil substantial roles in areas such as logistics, tactical surveillance, and direct human-interaction. However, these applications require a considerable improvement in autopilot design for UAS; shortcomings of current capabilities are identified in this thesis. Indeed, one of the most important improvements to be made is enabling fully autonomous operations where limited human intervention and oversight is necessary for mission success. In this thesis, we present two adaptive control systems for tailsitter UAS to enable accurate trajectory tracking in realistic scenarios with degraded conditions, such as inclement weather with unsteady winds, poorly-modeled dynamics as a result of negligence or a cost-benefit analysis, failing actuators due to overuse or damage from collisions. In the first adaptive control system, we focus on the tailsitter UAS' longitudinal dynamics, and employ a novel adaptive control technique to stabilize the system. In the second adaptive control system, we do not separate the longitudinal and lateral-directional dynamics, and split the tailsitter UAS' translational and rotational dynamics into outer and inner loops, respectively. In this control system, the windup problem is addressed using barrier functions, the reference orientation is determined as a solution to the orthogonal Procrustes' problem, and the system's dynamics are stabilized using model reference adaptive control. Furthermore, in this dissertation, we develop and present a guidance and control system which can be used to enable autonomous intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and logistics (ISRL) operations in unknown, dynamic, and potentially hostile environments. The guidance system enables the UAS to achieve a user-defined behavior which ranges from tactical to reckless. The tactical or reckless behaviors are enabled through the guidance system's path planner, which is based on the A* search algorithm employing custom cost and heuristic function. Similarly, the guidance system's trajectory planner, which is based on fast model predictive control (fMPC), enables tactical or reckless behaviors through a custom cost function. The problem of collision-avoidance is handled through the path planner, which returns collision-free paths, and a novel constraint set generation algorithm which deduces regions of free space near the UAS; these regions are used as constraint sets for the trajectory planner. We validate the proposed approach in simulation and flight tests, and present a taxonomy of flight behaviors.

This thesis discusses the creation of an object-oriented method to facilitate the creation and specification of aircraft mission profiles. Mission profiles are detailed descriptions of an aircraft's flight path and its inflight mission activities. They are a vital aspect of the conceptual design process of an aircraft. The Mission Profile Input System (MPIS) created is general in nature and can be customized to be compatible with existing aircraft CAD systems. All data associated with the mission—phase parameters, phases, and mission parameters, are defined to be objects. Each data type can therefore be customized individually to meet any requirements which may be necessary to make the MPIS compatible with a host system. Customization of the MPIS is further enhanced by the nature of the design upon which it is based. An object-oriented design provides the system with a high degree of extendibility. The encapsulation and inheritance features of object-oriented design allow new types of phases and phase parameters to be simply "plugged" into the existing system. The MPIS provides the user with an interactive, Motif-like interface which is conducive to manipulating the large quantities of data inherent in specifying mission profiles. The system is based on the ISO graphics standard, PHIGS, and hence is device-independent. Moreover, the system has been implemented using the hybrid object-oriented language, C++, which is supported by a large number of computer systems. / Master of Science