Stability Analysis of Nonlinear Models of Nose Landing Gear Shimmy

Shimmy can reduce the service life of the nose landing gear, affect ride comfort, and even cause fuselage damage leading to aircraft crashes. Taking a light aircraft as the research object, the torsional freedom of landing gear around strut axis and lateral deformation of tire are considered. Since the landing gear shimmy is a nonlinear system, a nonlinear mechanical model of the front landing gear shimmy is established. Sobol index method is proposed to analyze the influence of structural parameters on the stability region of the nose landing gear, and Routh-Huritz criterion is used to verify the reliability of the analysis results of Sobol index method. We analyse the effect of torsional stiffness of strut, caster length, rated initial tire inflation pressure, rake angle, and vertical force on the stability region of theront landing gear. And the research shows that the optimization of the torsional stiffness of the strut and the caster length of the nose landing gear should be emphasized, and the influence of vertical force on the stability region of the nose landing gear should be paid attention to.

Autonomous landing scene recognition based on transfer learning for drones

In this paper, we study autonomous landing scene recognition with knowledge transfer for drones. Considering the difficulties in aerial remote sensing, especially that some scenes are extremely similar, or the same scene has different representations in different altitudes, we employ a deep convolutional neural network(CNN) based on knowledge transfer and fine-tuning to solve the problem. Then, LandingScenes-7 dataset is established and divided into seven classes. Moreover, there is still a novelty detection problem in the classifier, and we address this by excluding other landing scenes using the approach of thresholding in the prediction stage. We employ the transfer learning method based on ResNeXt-50 backbone with the adaptive momentum(ADAM) optimization algorithm. We also compare ResNet-50 backbone and the momentum stochastic gradient descent(SGD) optimizer. Experiment results show that ResNeXt-50 based on the ADAM optimization algorithm has better performance. With a pre-trained model and fine-tuning, it can achieve 97.845 0% top-1 accuracy on the LandingScenes-7dataset, paving the way for drones to autonomously learn landing scenes.

Indirect contact matters:Mid-flight external trunk perturbation increased unilateral anterior cruciate ligament loading variables during jump-landings

Purpose:To determine the effect of unanticipated mid-flight medial-lateral external perturbation of the upper or lower trunk on anterior cruciate ligament(ACL)loading variable s during jump-landings.Methods:Thirty-two participants performed double-leg vertical jump-landings while bilateral kinematics and kinetics were collected under 6conditions(upper or lower trunk perturbation locations;no,left,or right perturbation directions).Two customized catapult apparatuses were created to apply pushing perturbation to participants near the maximal jump height.Results:The ball contacted participants near the center of mass for the lower-trunk conditions and approximately 23 cm above the center of mass for the upper-trunk conditions.Under upper-trunk perturbation,the contralateral leg demonstrated significantly smaller knee flexion angles at initial contact and greater peak knee abduction angles,peak vertical ground reaction forces,peak knee extension moments,and peak knee adduction moments compared to other legs among all conditions.Under lower-trunk perturbation,the contralateral leg showed significantly smaller knee flexion angles at initial contact and increased peak vertical ground reaction forces and peak knee extension moments compared to legs in the no-perturbation conditions.Conclusion:Mid-flight external trunk pushing perturbation increased ACL loading variables for the leg contralateral to the perturbation.The uppertrunk perturbation resulted in greater changes in ACL loading variables compared to the lower-trunk perturbation,likely due to trunk and ipsilateral leg rotation and more laterally located center of mass relative to the contralateral leg.These findings may help us understand the mechanisms of indirect-contact ACL injuries and develop jump-landing training strategies under mid-flight trunk perturbation to better prevent ACL injury.

Phenomenology of plume-surface interactions and preliminary results from the Tianwen-1 landing crater on Mars

The plume-surface interaction(PSI)is a common phenomenon that describes the environment surrounding the landers resulting from the impingement of hot rocket exhaust on the regolith of planetary bodies.The PSI will cause obscuration,erosion of the planetary surface,and high-speed spreading of dust or high-energy ejecta streams,which will induce risks to a safe landing and cause damage to payloads on the landers or to nearby assets.Safe landings and the subsequent scientific goals of deep-space exploration in China call for a comprehensive understanding of the PSI process,including the plume flow mechanics,erosion mechanism,and ejecta dynamics.In addition,the landing crater caused by the plume provides a unique and insightful perspective on the understanding of PSI.In particular,the PSI can be used directly to constrain the composition,structure,and mechanical properties of the surface and subsurface soil.In this study,we conducted a systematic review of the phenomenology and terrestrial tests of PSI:we analyzed the critical factors in the PSI process and compared the differences in PSI phenomena between lunar and Martian conditions;we also reviewed the main erosion mechanisms and the evolution and development of terrestrial tests on PSI.We discuss the problems with PSI,challenges of terrestrial tests,and prospects of PSI,and we show the preliminary results obtained from the landing crater caused by the PSI of Tianwen-1.From analysis of the camera images and digital elevation model reconstructions,we concluded that the landing of Tianwen-1 caused the deepest crater(depth>40 cm)on a planetary surface reported to date and revealed stratigraphic layers in the subsurface of Martian soil.We further constrained the lower bounds of the mechanical properties of Martian soil by a slope stability analysis of the Tianwen-1 landing crater.The PSI may offer promising opportunities to obtain greater insights into planetary science,including the subsurface structure,mineral composition,and properties of soil.

Selection of a non-localized landing region for an unmanned helicopter based on an attention model

A new landing region selection algorithm for an unmanned helicopter is proposed based on an attention model.Different from the original attention model,some properties of the possible safe landing regions（e.g.,depth,regional color and motion features）are included in the selection algorithm.Furthermore,regional color and motion features are fused directly into the saliency map because these features do not have the ＂central-peripheral＂property.Experimental results validate the feasibility and efficiency of this approach.

SIMULATION OF LARGE CIVIL AIRCRAFT LANDING RESPONSE UNDER CONSIDERATIONS OF FLEXIBLE AIRFRAME

To evaluate the landing response of the large civil aircraft in the conceptual design phase , a method for simulating aircraft landing is given.The model for the shock absorber is investigated.The flexible airframe model is established using finite element model ( FEM ) to analyze its modes.Then , the whole aircraft model with flexible airframe is made for the multibody simulation.Tail-down , two-point , three-point and sideslip landing scenarios are studied.The influence on the landing performance considering mode superposition of the flexible airframe is analyzed.Both longitudinal and spanwise positions of the main landing gear are changed to research the influence on the landing performance.Results show that the method is feasible.The shock absorber axial force of the main landing gear with the flexible airframe is smaller than that of rigid airframe.The number of mode superposition and the position of main landing gear can influence the landing response.

Medial Longitudinal Arch Pad Influences Landing Control of the Lower Limbs during Single-Leg Jump-Landing

Background: Arch support has the effect of maintaining arch and correcting alignment, and it is broadly used for the prevention of sports impediment and treatment of athletes with lowered MLA and foot problems. The fact that the morphological change of MLA damages balance sense and postural control, it was reported that the insole supporting the arch of MLA improved postural balance. There are several studies regarding the effects of arch support;however, its effects on landing control have not been clarified. Therefore, in our research, we discussed the effect of MLA support for landing control, using lower limb dynamic alignment and the moment during landing as indexes. Methods: This study measured the landing motion to be evaluated was to jump from a platform with a height of 30 cm by taking-off with a single foot, and landing on a single foot on a floor reaction force gauge placed ahead and stay still for three seconds for the subjects were 13 healthy females. A soft 6 mm Boron sheet cut in the size of 9 × 3.5 cm, applied with double-sided tape (MLA pad) was used for arch support (hereafter referred to as “pad”). For the lower limb evaluation, an 8-camera with a three-dimensional behavioral analyzer (CORTEX, NAC product, sampling frequency: 120 Hz) and a floor reaction force gauge (AMTI product, sampling frequency: 1000 Hz) were used. Ten successful jump-landing tests for each limb were used for further analyses using Visual 3D software (Cmotion Inc., Kingston, Canada). Analysis objects were knee joint bending angle and valgus angle during landing;knee joint maximum bending angle;bending knee joint valgus angle, hip joint bending angle, adduction angle, ankle joint plantar flexion angle, varus angle at the time of knee joint maximum bending angle;and each joint moment. For statistical processing, the average value of three trials out of five trials was regarded as a representative value. Results: Regarding joint angles, significant differences were observed in maximum knee joint bending angle, knee joint bending angle during maximum valgus knee joint and ankle joint varus angle during knee joint maximum bending angle between before and after intervention. No significant differences were observed in other joint angles. Regarding joint moments, no significant difference was observed in each joint moment before and after the intervention. Significance: The decrease of knee joint valgus angle during landing by the use of MLA pad suggests the possibility of decreasing the risk of ACL injury. As the incidence of ACL injury in females is higher than that of males, and the evaluation for females had proceeded, it can be useful information for the prevention of ACL injury.

Hierarchical Optimization of Landing Performance for Lander with Adaptive Landing Gear

A parameterized dynamics analysis model of legged lander with adaptive landing gear was established. Based on the analysis model, the landing performances under various landing conditions were analyzed by the optimized Latin hypercube experimental design method. In order to improve the landing performances, a hierarchical optimization method was proposed considering the uncertainty of landing conditions. The optimization problem was divided into a higher level(hereafter the "leader") and several lower levels(hereafter the "follower"). The followers took condition?ing factors as design variables to find out the worst landing conditions, while the leader took bu er parameters as design variables to better the landing performance under worst conditions. First of all, sensitivity analysis of landing conditioning factors was carried out according to the results of experimental design. After the sensitive factors were screened out, the response surface models were established to reflect the complicated relationships between sensi?tive conditioning factors, bu er parameters and landing performance indexes. Finally, the response surface model was used for hierarchical optimization iteration to improve the computational e ciency. After selecting the optimum bu er parameters from the solution set, the dynamic model with the optimum parameters was simulated again under the same landing conditions as the simulation before. After optimization, nozzle performance against damage is improved by 5.24%, the acceleration overload is reduced by 5.74%, and the primary strut improves its performance by 21.10%.

Do ankle braces provide similar effects on ankle biomechanical variables in subjects with and without chronic ankle instability during landing?

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to examine effects of a sport version of a semi-rigid ankle brace(ElementTM) and a soft ankle brace （ASO） on ankle biomechanics and ground reaction forces（GRFs） during a drop landing activity in subjects with chronic ankle instability(CAD compared to healthy subjects with no history of CAI. Methods:Ten healthy subjects and 10 subjects who had multiple ankle sprains participated in the study as the control and unstable subjects, respectively.The CAI subjects were age,body mass index and gender matched with the control subjects.The arch index and ankle functions of the subjects were measured in a subject screening session.During the biomechanical test session,participants performed five trials of drop landing from 0.6 m,wearing no brace（NB）.Element? brace and ASO brace.Simultaneous recording of three-dimensional kinematic（240 Hz） and GRF（1200 Hz） data were performed. Results:The CAI subjects had lower ankle functional survey scores.The arch index and deformity results showed greater arch deformity of ElementTM against a static load than in NB and ASO due to greater initial arch position held by the brace.CAI participants had greater eversion velocity than healthy controls.The ASO brace reduced the first peak vertical GRF whereas ElementTM increased 2nd peak vertical GRF. ElementTMbrace reduced eversion range of motion（ROM） and peak eversion velocity compared to NB and ASO.In addition,ElementTM reduced dorsiflexion ROM and increased peak plantarflexion moment compared to NB and ASO. Conclusion:Results of static arch measurements and dynamic ankle motion suggest that the restrictions offered by both braces are in part due to more dorsiflexed ankle positions at contact,and higher initial arch position and stiffer ankle for ElementTM.

Guidance and Control Techniques of Carrier-Based Aircraft for Automatic Carrier Landing

We summarize the guidance and control techniques of automatic carrier landing for carrier-based aircraft.First,we analyze the carrier landing operations of the manned fixed-wing aircraft,unmanned fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.Second,we look into the navigation and guidance system and the flight control methods for current different aircraft.Finally,we draw several conclusions of the development prospects for aircraft carrier landing,including the precision landing control techniques,precision approach and landing guidance techniques,and adaptive,reconfigurable and intelligent flight control techniques.

Automatic Carrier Landing Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Preview Control

For carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),one of the important problems is the design of an automatic carrier landing system(ACLS)that would enable the UAVs to accomplish autolanding on the aircraft carrier.However,due to the movements of the flight deck with six degree-of-freedom,the autolanding becomes sophisticated.To solve this problem,an accurate and effective ACLS is developed,which is composed of an optimal preview control based flight control system and a Kalman filter based deck motion predictor.The preview control fuses the future information of the reference glide slope to improve landing precision.The reference glide slope is normally a straight line.However,the deck motion will change the position of the ideal landing point,and tracking the ideal straight glide slope may cause landing failure.Therefore,the predictive deck motion information from the deck motion predictor is used to correct the reference glide slope,which decreases the dispersion around the desired landing point.Finally,simulations are carried out to verify the performance of the designed ACLS based on a nonlinear UAV model.

Tradeoff Analysis of Factors Affecting Longitudinal Carrier Landing Performance for Small UAV Based on Backstepping Controller

Tradeoff analysis of the factors,including external environment and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)aerodynamic attributes,which affect longitudinal carrier landing performance,is important for small UAV.First,small UAV longitudinal carrier landing system is established,as well as the nonlinear dynamics and kinematics model,and then the longitudinal flight control system using backstepping technology with minimum information about the aerodynamic is designed.To assess the landing performance,a variety of influencing factors are considered,resulting in the constraints of aerodynamic attributes of carrier UAV.The simulation results show that the severe sea condition has the greatest influence on landing dispersion,while air wake is the primary factor on impact velocity.Among the longitudinal aerodynamic parameters,the lift curve slope is the most important factor affecting the landing performance,and increasing lift curve slope can improve the landing performance significantly.A better system performance will be achieved when the lift curve slope is larger than 2per radian.

Autonomous Landing of Small Unmanned Aerial Rotorcraft Based on Monocular Vision in GPS-denied Area

Focusing on the low-precision attitude of a current small unmanned aerial rotorcraft at the landing stage, the present paper proposes a new attitude control method for the GPS-denied scenario based on the monocular vision. Primarily, a robust landmark detection technique is developed which leverages the well-documented merits of supporting vector machines(SVMs)to enable landmark detection. Then an algorithm of nonlinear optimization based on Newton iteration method for the attitude and position of camera is put forward to reduce the projection error and get an optimized solution. By introducing the wavelet analysis into the adaptive Kalman filter, the high frequency noise of vision is filtered out successfully. At last, automatic landing tests are performed to verify the method s feasibility and effectiveness.

Aircraft Landing Gear Control with Multi-Objective Optimization Using Generalized Cell Mapping

This paper presents a numerical algorithm tuning aircraft landing gear control system with three objectives,including reducing relative vibration, reducing hydraulic strut force and controlling energy consumption. Sliding mode control is applied to the vibration control of a simplified landing gear model with uncertainty. A two-stage generalized cell mapping algorithm is applied to search the Pareto set with gradient-free scheme. Drop test simulations over uneven runway show that the vibration and force interaction can be considerably reduced, and the Pareto optimum form a tight range in time domain.

ANALYSIS OF THE CLIMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF LANDING TROPICAL CYCLONES IN EAST CHINA

The intensity, landing time, track trend and intensity variation of tropical cyclones (TCs) afterlandfall are analyzed using the TCs data (of best track from the China Meteorological Administration)between 1949 and 2006 for the western North Pacific and South China Sea. The trend differences of trackand intensity between the TCs that directly land in East China and those making the second landfall in EastChina after landing in Taiwan Island are categorically discussed. The results show that the first kind oflanding TCs are more likely to go northward or turn while the second kind of TCs have a larger tendency tokeep going northwest. The intensity of the first kind of TCs is more persistent than the second one. There isa higher percentage for the intensity to be weakened significantly if the TCs keep going west to northwest orsouthwest after landing.

VLPL-S在Knights Landing上的优化与性能评估

VLPL-S代码是基于Particle-in-Cell(PIC)算法开发的激光等离子体模拟程序,PIC算法是激光等离子模拟领域的常用主流算法之一。讲述了VLPL-S代码在Intel?新推出的Knights Landing平台上的早期移植及优化工作。通过采用在代码优化中常用的优化方法,例如访存优化、多线程优化、向量化,为VLPL-S代码实现了1.68倍的加速比。对于优化以后的VLPL-S代码,其在Knights Landing 7210P单节点上的性能是其在双路Xeon E5-2697v4节点上性能的1.53倍。还对比了不同优化方法在Knights Landing及Xeon平台上所获得的性能提升。结果表明,对于VLPL-S代码,以往CPU代码优化工作中常用的优化方法在新的Knights Landing平台中同样有效。

AN ENSEMBLE FORECAST EXPERIMENT OF A LANDING TYPHOON

Based on the Global Regional Assimilation and Prediction System-Tropical Cyclone Model(GRAPES-TCM),an ensemble forecast experiment was performed,in which Typhoon Wipha during the period immediately prior to landfall was selected for the study and the breeding of growing mode(BGM) method was used to perturb the initial conditions of the vortex field and the environment field.The results of the experiment indicate that each member had a different initial status in BGM processing and they show a reasonable spread among members along with the forecast phase.Changes in the large-scale field,thermodynamic structure,and spread among members took place when Wipha made landfall.The steering effect of the large-scale field and the interaction between the thermodynamics and the dynamics resulted in different tracks of the members.Meanwhile,the forecast uncertainty increased.In summary,the ensemble mean did not perform as well as the control forecast,but the cluster mean provided some useful information,and performed better than the control in some instances.The position error was 34 km for 24 h forecast,153 km for 48 h forecast,and 191 km for 66 h forecast.The strike probability chart qualitatively described the forecast uncertainty.

GA-Based Model Predictive Control of Semi-Active Landing Gear

Semi-active landing gear can provide good performance of both landing impact and taxi situation, and has the ability for adapting to various ground conditions and operational conditions. A kind of Nonlinear Model Predictive Control algorithm （NMPC） for semi-active landing gears is developed in this paper. The NMPC algorithm uses Genetic Algorithm （GA） as the optimization technique and chooses damping performance of landing gear at touch down to be the optimization object. The valve＇s rate and magnitude limitations are also considered in the controller＇s design. A simulation model is built for the semi-active landing gear＇s damping process at touchdown. Drop tests are carried out on an experimental passive landing gear systerm to validate the parameters of the simulation model. The result of numerical simulation shows that the isolation of impact load at touchdown can be significantly improved compared to other control algorithms. The strongly nonlinear dynamics of semi-active landing gear coupled with control valve＇s rate and magnitude limitations are handled well with the proposed controller.

Neuro-Optimal Guidance Control for Lunar Soft Landing

Returning to moon has become a top topic recently. Many studies have shown that soft landing is a challenging problem in lunar exploration. The lunar soft landing in this paper begins from a 100 km circular lunar parking orbit. Once the landing area has been selected and it is time to deorbit for landing, a ΔV burn of 19.4 m/s is performed to establish a 100×15 km elliptical orbit. At perilune, the landing jets are ignited, and a propulsive landing is performed. A guidance and control scheme for lunar soft landing is proposed in the paper, which combines optimal theory with nonlinear neuro-control. Basically, an optimal nonlinear control law based on artificial neural network is presented, on the basis of the optimum trajectory from perilune to lunar surface in terms of Pontryagin's maximum principle according to the terminal boundary conditions and performance index. Therefore some optimal control laws can be carried out in the soft landing system due to the nonlinear mapping function of the neural network. The feasibility and validity of the control laws are verified in a simulation experiment.

H_∞ Preview Control for Automatic Carrier Landing

This paper focuses on the application of H_∞preview control in automatic carrier landing system(ACLS)for carrier-based aircraft.Due to the mutual movement between aircraft and carrier,the landing process becomes considerably more challenging compared to a conventional runway landing.ACLS systems mitigate this by predicting deck motion and generating ideal glide slope path for tracking.Although,this predicted glide slope information is available in advance,conventional control structures are still unable to use this future information.H_∞preview control has the ability to utilize this future information for improving tracking response and disturbance rejection.The process of incorporating preview information into ACLS framework and synthesizing the H_∞preview controller is presented.The methodology is verified using the example of F/A-18 automatic carrier landing problem and results are presented.