Dynamic Characteristics of Inter-Satellite Links in LEO Networks

To establish an efficient inter-satellite link (ISL) in an LEO network, the effect of geometric characteristics of ISL on the ISLs and the devices on the LEO satellite should be examined. Because of the continuous movement of the LEO satellite, the time-varying behaviours of the ISL's geometric charactersistics continuously change with the changes of the satellite's position on the orbit. These dynamic geometric characteristics of the ISLs are important for ISL's performance analyzing and the design of the devices on the LEO satellite. This paper describes dynamic geometric characteristics of ISL, analyzes the impact of these regulations on the tracking system of the satellite's antenna and the power adjusting system of the satellite's transmitter, with the Iridium system as an example.

Adaptive frame length algorithm for inter-satellite links

In view of the low ranging efficiency of the conventional fixed frame-length algorithm in the inter-satellite link,an adaptive frame-length algorithm is proposed. The frame length is adjusted adaptively according to the results of ranging and velocity measuring to improve ranging efficiency. Buffers which enable the frame length to be selected discretely and adaptively are introduced to avoid frequent hopping of the frame-length.Frame length marker is created to automatically identify the frame-length for frame synchronization procedures in receivers. The feasibility and the validity of the proposed algorithm to improve the efficiency of ranging are verified through both theoretic analysis and simulation,and the efficiency improves up to 88% when there are five buffers. This improvement can be further enhanced by increasing the number of buffers. Proper allocation of inter-satellite buffers is required to make a balance between the ranging efficiency and the system complexity.

Impacts of inter-satellite links on the ECOM model performance for BDS-3 MEO satellites

Inter-satellite link(ISL)plays an essential role in current and future Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS).In this study,we investigate the impact of ISL observations on precise orbit determination for BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System(BDS-3)Medium Earth Orbit(MEO)satellites based on different Extended CODE Orbit Models(ECOM).Thanks to the better observation geometry of the Ka-band ISL data compared to the L-band data for BDS-3 MEO satellites,the ISL solution substantially reduces Orbit Boundary Discontinuity(OBD)errors,except for C30,which suffers from unstable Ka-band hardware delay.From the external quality analysis,ISL significantly enhances the reliability of the orbit of MEO satellites manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology(CAST).The standard deviation(STD)of the satellite laser ranging(SLR)residuals is approximately 2.5 cm,and the root mean square(RMS)is reduced by 10–23%compared to L-band solutions.Besides,the Sun-elongation angle dependent systematic error in SLR residuals nearly vanishes based on the reduced 5-parameter ECOM(ECOM1)or extended 7-parameter ECOM(ECOM2)with ISL data.This is because the ISL reduces the correlation between state parameters and solar radiation pressure(SRP)parameters as well as those among SRP parameters,leading to a more accurate estimation of both orbit and SRP perturbations,particularly those along B direction.This confirms that the deficiency of the SRP models for BDS-3 CAST satellites can be compensated by using better observation geometry from ISL data.On the other hand,for the satellite manufactured by Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites(SECM),the ISL allows for a more accurate estimation of the Bc_(1)parameter in the ECOM1 model.This only reduces linear systematic error,possibly because the impact generated by the satellite bus cannot be entirely absorbed by the B-direction parameters.

Analysis of the connectivity and robustness of inter-satellite links in a constellation

In the design of new constellation configurations or research of existing constellation performance,the connectivity and robustness of inter-satellite links (ISL) are needed for analysis.In this paper,graph theory is used to analyze the connectivity and robustness of the ISL in constellations,which are measured under the requirements of a short average distance and a small range of ISL azimuth angles,elevation angles and distances.The method to determine ISL connectivity by using the adjacency matrix of graph theory is put forward for the first time,and the standards of the ISL performance are given using:the number of ways between any two satellites,cutting point,cutting edge,k-connectivity degree and k-edge connectivity degree of graph theory.Finally,in the simulation,the ISLs in the Walker 24/6/1 constellation and the ISLs in the Walker 24/3/1 constellation are established from the optimal perspective of the azimuth angle,elevation angle and distance,and the characteristics of ISL in the Walker 24/6/1 and Walker 24/3/1 constellations are compared.The conclusions of this paper can be used as a reference for the design of new constellation configurations and analysis of existing ISLs.

Autonomous satellite constellation orbit determination using the star sensor and inter-satellite links data

A method of autonomous orbit determination for a satellite constellation using a star sensor combined with inter satellite links(ISLs) is studied.Two types of simulated observation data,Three-Satellite Constellation ISLs and background stellar observations by a CCD star sensor,are first produced.Based on these data,an observation equation is built for the constellation joint autonomous orbit determination,in which the simulations are run.The accuracy of this method with different orbital determination models are analyzed and compared with regard to the effect of potential measurement errors.The results show that autonomous satellite constellation orbit determination using star sensor measurement and ISLs data is feasible.Finally,this paper arrives at several conclusions which contribute to extending this method to a more general satellite constellation.

Precise orbit determination for a large LEO constellation with inter-satellite links and the measurements from different ground networks:a simulation study

Geodetic applications of Low Earth Orbit(LEO)satellites requires accurate satellite orbits.Instead of using onboard Global Navigation Satellite System observations,this contribution treats the LEO satellite constellation independently,using Inter-Satellite Links and the measurements of different ground networks.Due to geopolitical and geographical reasons,a ground station network cannot be well distributed.We compute the impact of different ground networks(i.e.,global networks with different numbers of stations and regional networks in different areas and latitudes)on LEO satellite orbit determination with and without the inter-satellite links.The results are based on a simulated constellation of 90 LEO satellites.We find that the orbits determined using a high latitude network is worse than using a middle or low latitude network.This is because the high latitude network has a poorer geometry even if the availability of satellite measurements is higher than for the other two cases.Also,adding more stations in a regional network shows almost no improvements on the satellite orbits if the number of stations is more than 16.With the help of ISL observations,however,the satellite orbits determined with a small regional network can reach the same accuracy as that with the global network of 60 stations.Furthermore,satellite biases can be well estimated(less than 0.6 mm)and have nearly no impact on satellite orbits.It does thus not matter if they are not physically calibrated for estimating precise orbits.

Data-Driven Heuristic Assisted Memetic Algorithm for Efficient Inter-Satellite Link Scheduling in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

Inter-satellite link(ISL)scheduling is required by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS)to guarantee the system ranging and communication performance.In the BDS,a great number of ISL scheduling instances must be addressed every day,which will certainly spend a lot of time via normal metaheuristics and hardly meet the quick-response requirements that often occur in real-world applications.To address the dual requirements of normal and quick-response ISL schedulings,a data-driven heuristic assisted memetic algorithm(DHMA)is proposed in this paper,which includes a high-performance memetic algorithm(MA)and a data-driven heuristic.In normal situations,the high-performance MA that hybridizes parallelism,competition,and evolution strategies is performed for high-quality ISL scheduling solutions over time.When in quick-response situations,the data-driven heuristic is performed to quickly schedule high-probability ISLs according to a prediction model,which is trained from the high-quality MA solutions.The main idea of the DHMA is to address normal and quick-response schedulings separately,while high-quality normal scheduling data are trained for quick-response use.In addition,this paper also presents an easy-to-understand ISL scheduling model and its NP-completeness.A seven-day experimental study with 10080 one-minute ISL scheduling instances shows the efficient performance of the DHMA in addressing the ISL scheduling in normal(in 84 hours)and quick-response(in 0.62 hour)situations,which can well meet the dual scheduling requirements in real-world BDS applications.

Inter-satellite Link Topology Design and Relative Navigation for Satellite Clusters

A distributed relative navigation approach via inter-satellite sensing and communication for satellite clusters is proposed. The inter-satellite link(ISL)is used for ranging and exchanging data for the relative navigation,which can improve the autonomy of the satellite cluster. The ISL topology design problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem where the energy consumption and the navigation performance are considered. Further,the relative navigation is performed in a distributed fashion,where each satellite in the cluster makes observations and communicates with its neighbors via the ISL locally such that the transmission consumption and the computational complexity for the navigation are reduced. The ISL topology optimization problem is solved via the NSGA-Ⅱ algorithm,and the consensus Kalman filter is used for the distributed relative navigation. The proposed approach is flexible to varying tasks,with satellites joining or leaving the cluster anytime,and is robust to the failure of an individual satellite. Numerical simulations are presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Layered Coded Cache Placement and Cooperative Delivery with Sharing Links in Satellite-Terrestrial Integrated Networks

Cooperative utilization of multidimensional resources including cache, power and spectrum in satellite-terrestrial integrated networks(STINs) can provide a feasible approach for massive streaming media content delivery over the seamless global coverage area. However, the on-board supportable resources of a single satellite are extremely limited and lack of interaction with others. In this paper, we design a network model with two-layered cache deployment, i.e., satellite layer and ground base station layer, and two types of sharing links, i.e., terrestrial-satellite sharing(TSS) links and inter-satellite sharing(ISS) links, to enhance the capability of cooperative delivery over STINs. Thus, we use rateless codes for the content divided-packet transmission, and derive the total energy efficiency(EE) in the whole transmission procedure, which is defined as the ratio of traffic offloading and energy consumption. We formulate two optimization problems about maximizing EE in different sharing scenarios(only TSS and TSS-ISS),and propose two optimized algorithms to obtain the optimal content placement matrixes, respectively.Simulation results demonstrate that, enabling sharing links with optimized cache placement have more than 2 times improvement of EE performance than other traditional placement schemes. Particularly, TSS-ISS schemes have the higher EE performance than only TSS schemes under the conditions of enough number of satellites and smaller inter-satellite distances.

Zhongshan:Embracing New Links

On June 30,2024,the much-anticipated Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link officially began trial operation.The world-class cross-sea cluster project integrating two bridges,two islands,and an underwater tunnel is expected to shorten the driving time from Shenzhen to Zhongshan from two hours to 30 minutes,helping create a 30-minute commute circle across the area.As the flow of innovation factors accelerates through the Shenzhen Zhongshan Link,Zhongshan City has been proactively exploring cooperation models such as“Shenzhen headquarters plus Zhongshan manufacturing,”“Shenzhen leading businesses plus Zhongshan support,”and“Shenzhen R&D plus Zhongshan commercialization”to form a one-hour science and technology industrial cooperation circle with Shenzhen and build a more open,coordinated,and efficient regional innovation system.

Zenith pass tracing of the inter-satellite linkage antenna

The inter-satellite linkage antenna of the user satellite uses the Elevation-over-Azimuth type,and the zenith pass problem occurs during tracing TDRS. Firstly,the movement laws of the inter-satellite linkage is introduced for predicting the movement of the user satellite antenna. Then,the potential zenith pass moment is analyzed in detail. Some special orbits for the user satellite that can avoid the blindness zone are obtained. Finally,the zenith pass tracing strategies for the user satellite antenna based on the mechanical tilting are designed by using the trajectory preprocessor. The designs are based on the predicting results of the movement laws of the inter-satellite linkage. The strategies are proved to be reasonable and feasible for solving the zenith pass problem by simulation.

Vibration Reduction of Open-chain Flexible Manipulators by Optimizing Independent Motions of Branch Links

In order to suppress vibration in flexible manipulators, a new type of manipulator mechanism with controllable local degrees of freedom is proposed. This mechanism consists of a main chain and some branch links. The main chain is of a flexible open-chain configuration with an end-effector installed at its tip, and the rigid branch links are able to perform active movements. It is proved by kinematics and dynamic analysis that, the branch links bear no direct kinematic relation to the main chain, but their independent motions can strongly affect the dynamic behavior and performance of the flexible manipulator. Then comes a new idea of suppressing vibration, in which independent motions of the branch links are used to suppress the undesired vibration of the flexible main chain through dynamic coupling. On this basis, an optimal method for reducing vibration of flexible manipulators is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is verified by numerical simulations.

Percolation on networks with dependence links

As a classical model of statistical physics, the percolation theory provides a powerful approach to analyze the network structure and dynamics. Recently, to model the relations among interacting agents beyond the connection of the networked system, the concept of dependence link is proposed to represent the dependence relationship of agents. These studies suggest that the percolation properties of these networks differ greatly from those of the ordinary networks. In particular, unlike the well known continuous transition on the ordinary networks, the percolation transitions on these networks are discontinuous. Moreover, these networks are more fragile for a broader degree distribution, which is opposite to the famous results for the ordinary networks. In this article, we give a summary of the theoretical approaches to study the percolation process on networks with inter- and inner-dependence links, and review the recent advances in this field, focusing on the topology and robustness of such networks.

ON THE DYNAMIC MODELING AND CONTROL OF 2-DOF PLANAR PARALLEL MECHANISM WITH FLEXIBLE LINKS

The object of study is about dynamic modeling and control for a 2degree-of-freedom (DOF) planar parallel mechanism (PM) with flexible links. The kinematic anddynamic equations are established according to the characteristics of mixed rigid and flexiblestructure. By using the singular perturbation approach (SPA), the model of the mechanism can beseparated into slow and fast subsystems. Based on the feedback linearization theory and inputshaping technique, the large scale rigid motion controller and the flexible link vibrationcontroller can be designed separately to achieve fast and accurate positioning of the PM.

电动汽车电控液压制动系统CarSim/Simulink联合仿真研究

针对某款国产电动汽车的电控液压制动系统,文章基于滑移率的比例-积分-微分(PID)控制提出了防抱死制动系统(ABS)模型,以改善车辆制动性能,提高在对开路面上的制动有效性和安全性。首先,使用Simulink软件建立液压电控制动系统的动力学模型;然后,基于滑移率设计PID控制器,并通过1/4车辆模型验证其有效性;最后,利用S函数将ABS控制器的Simulink模型输入CarSim平台中,开展CarSim/Simulink双平台联合控制仿真。结果表明,基于滑移率的PID控制的ABS对比无ABS的车辆,制动性能更加优越,在对开路面上制动稳定性更加明显。

一种MAKLINK图多节点链路建模的路径规划研究

针对传统MAKLINK图规划路径线路改变时,其最优化路径易与环境约束条件冲突的问题,提出了在MAKLINK图中各链路上增加节点数目的方法,以提高系统建模的适应性和鲁棒性。设计的多节点链路通过dijkstra算法得到更为理想的次优化路径,由蚁群算法进行迭代计算获得最优化路径,实现了在保证路径适应度的前提下,提高优化路径对环境约束条件的适应性。实验结果表明,与基本MAKLINK图路径规划算法相比,多节点链路的建模路径规划算法可有效提高次优路径的建模精度,最优路径的适应度值较单节点链路减小了1.43%,具有一定的建模优势。

Effect of different inter-satellite range on measurement precision of Earth’s gravitational field from GRACE

The precision of Earth＇s gravitational field from GRACE up to degree and order 120 was studied for different inter-satellite ranges using the improved energy conservation principle. Our simulated result shows that： For long wavelength （L≤20） at degree 20, the cumulative geoid-height error gradually decreased with increasing range, from 0. 052 cm for 110 km to 1. 156 times and 1. 209 times as large for 220 km and 330 kin, respectively. For medium-wavelength （ 100 ≤ L ≤ 120） at degree 120, the cumulative geoid-height error de- creased from 13. 052 cm for 110 km, to 1. 327 times and 1. 970 times as large for the ranges of 220 km and 330 km, respectively; By adopting an optimal range of 220 ± 50 km, we can suppress considerably the loss of precision in the measurement of the Earth＇ s long-wavelength and medium-wavelength gravitational field.

Finite element investigation of steel built-up shear links subjected to inelastic deformations

Non-linear finite element models accounting for large displacements have been used to investigate the behavior of steel built-up shear links that had previously been tested using large-scale experiments. The links were designed using steel grades with yield points ranging from high to low strengths. The objectives of the numerical analyses were to further investigate the non-linear behavior and to correlate the numerical results with experimental observations. Elasto-plastic as well as cyclic stress-strain material properties were incorporated to study the influence of material behavior on the overall shear link response. Non-linear monotonie analyses of the shear links incorporating the cyclic stress-strain steel properties resulted in similar trends in the response as the backbone curves recorded from the physical experiments. The numerical models of built-up shear links utilizing structural grade steels closely correlated to the experimentally recorded shear strength. Models utilizing low yield point steels overestimated the shear strength, which was caused by the characteristics of cyclic behavior of those steels. The detailed numerical models also allowed for investigation of the plastic strain demands on the different components of the link. It was shown that finite element models combined with appropriate stress-strain relationship may be used with confidence to check the design of shear links of different steel grades and sectional geometries.

Numerical Investigation of Mooring Line Damping and the Drag Coefficients of Studless Chain Links

The chain/wire rope/chain combination is a common choice for mooring offshore floating platforms. However, data of the drag coefficients of chain links are rather limited, resulting in uncertainties with the calculations of the drag force, and hence the damping of the mooring system. In this paper, the importance of the selection of the drag coefficient is first investigated. The computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method is then used to determine the drag coefficients of a studless chain under steady flows. Numerical model validation is first completed by simulating a smooth circular cylinder under steady flows. In particular, the performance of different turbulence models is assessed through the comparisons between the calculations and the experimental results. The large eddy simulation(LES) model is finally selected for the simulation of steady flows past a chain. The effects of the Reynolds number on the drag coefficient of a stud-less chain is also studied. The results show that the calculated drag coefficients of a stud-less chain are fairly consistent with the available experimental data.

DYNAMIC SUBSTRUCTURING ANALYSISOF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES WITHNONLINEAR LINKS

The paper deals with the dynamic response prediction of the composite structure,which consists of two linear components coupled by some nonlinear vibration isolators. Based on the measured impulse response functions of the linear components, three kinds of dynamic equations of interfacial integration are proposed and a procedure to transform the dynamic equations of integral type into a set of ordinary differential equations is suggested. Computer simulations and a real test are given to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.