An Investigation of Purely Azimuthal Passive Localization and Position Adjustment in Attempted UAV Formation Flights

When a cluster of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is flying in formation, it is crucial to maintain the formation and not to be interfered by external electromagnetic wave signals. In order to maintain the formation, this paper proposes to use pure azimuth passive positioning to adjust the position of UAVs, i.e., certain UAVs in the formation transmit signals, the rest of the UAVs receive the signals passively, and extract the orientation information from them to adjust the position of the UAVs [1] [2] [3]. In this paper, the position adjustment problem of UAVs in “circular” formation flight under three models is investigated. To address the problem of “how to obtain the position of the receiving UAV when there are two UAVs with known numbers and evenly distributed on the circumference in addition to the UAV transmitting at the known center of the circle, and the rest of the UAVs with slight deviations in their positions are receiving the signals”, two purely mathematical geometric methods, namely, triangular localization method and polar co-ordinate method, are proposed respectively. We have determined the position of the receiving UAV;we have used the exhaustive method and the construction and disproof method to solve the problem of “how many UAVs are needed to transmit signals in order to realize the effective positioning of the UAVs when it is known that a certain UAV with a slight deviation in its position receives the signals emitted by two UAVs at the same time”, and the results show that: in addition to the known signals emitted by two UAVs, it is also necessary to transmit the signals emitted by two UAVs. The results show that in addition to the known two UAVs transmitting signals, two additional UAVs are required to transmit signals for precise po-sitioning. When the position of UAVs has deviation at the initial moment, the ideal approximation method and the target delimitation method are pro-posed, and the target of nine UAVs uniformly distributed on a circle of a spe-cific radius is achieved through several adjustments, after which the ad-vantages and disadvantages of each model are analyzed, and suggestions for improvement are put forward. The purely azimuthal passive localization method and the constructed model approach proposed in this paper can be extended to other fields, such as spacecraft formations in space and battle-ship formations at sea, as well as other formation flight position adjustment problems.

The design of multi-function nursing wheelchair

In order to reduce nursing intensity and improve freedom of the elderly and the disabled, a multi-function nursing wheelchair which can switch chair to bed and realize many kinds of posture transformation is designed. This paper introduces the mechanical structure design （position adjustment mechanism and variable wheelbase mechanism） and control design of posture transformation unit of multifunctional nursing wheelchair.

Trajectory Planning Algorithm Based on Quaternion for 6-DOF Aircraft Wing Automatic Position and Pose Adjustment Method

A 6-degree of freedom （6-DOF） aircraft wing position and pose automatic adjustment method is presented to improve ARJ21 wing-fuselage connection precision and efficiency. Wing position and pose are adjusted by three pillars which are driven by six high-precision servo motors. During the adjustment process, wing is tracked and positioned by laser tracker. Wing initial position and pose are calibrated by using the measurement coordinates of assembly reference points. Wing target position and pose are calculated according to wing initial, fuselage position and pose, and relative position and pose requirements between wing and fuselage for the connection. Combining Newton-Euler method with quaternion position and pose analyzing method, the inverse kinematics of servo motors, together with the adjustment system dynamics is obtained. Wing quintic polynomial trajectory planning algorithm based on quatemion is proposed; the initial, target position and pose need to be solved and the intermediate moving path is uncertain. Simulation results show that the adjustment method has good dynamic characteristics and satisfies engineering requirements. Preliminary engineering application indicates that ARJ21 wing adjustment efficiency and precision are improved by using the proposed method.

Generalized multiple time windows model based parallel machine scheduling for TDRSS

The scheduling efficiency of the tracking and data relay satellite system（TDRSS）is strictly limited by the scheduling degrees of freedom（DoF）,including time DoF defined by jobs＇ flexible time windows and spatial DoF brought by multiple servable tracking and data relay satellites（TDRSs）.In this paper,ageneralized multiple time windows（GMTW）model is proposed to fully exploit the time and spatial DoF.Then,the improvements of service capability and job-completion probability based on the GMTW are theoretically proved.Further,an asymmetric path-relinking（APR）based heuristic job scheduling framework is presented to maximize the usage of DoF provided by the GMTW.Simulation results show that by using our proposal 11%improvement of average jobcompletion probability can be obtained.Meanwhile,the computing time of the time-to-target can be shorten to 1/9 of the GRASP.

Water storage changes in North America retrieved from GRACE gravity and GPS data

As global warming continues,the monitoring of changes in terrestrial water storage becomes increasingly important since it plays a critical role in understanding global change and water resource management.In North America as elsewhere in the world,changes in water resources strongly impact agriculture and animal husbandry.From a combination of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） gravity and Global Positioning System（GPS） data,it is recently found that water storage from August,2002 to March,2011 recovered after the extreme Canadian Prairies drought between 1999 and 2005.In this paper,we use GRACE monthly gravity data of Release 5 to track the water storage change from August,2002 to June,2014.In Canadian Prairies and the Great Lakes areas,the total water storage is found to have increased during the last decade by a rate of 73.8 ± 14.5 Gt/a,which is larger than that found in the previous study due to the longer time span of GRACE observations used and the reduction of the leakage error.We also find a long term decrease of water storage at a rate of-12.0 ± 4.2 Gt/a in Ungava Peninsula,possibly due to permafrost degradation and less snow accumulation during the winter in the region.In addition,the effect of total mass gain in the surveyed area,on present-day sea level,amounts to-0.18 mm/a,and thus should be taken into account in studies of global sea level change.

Design and experiment of fuzzy-PID based tillage depth control system for a self-propelled electric tiller

The research on the self-propelled electric tiller is vital for further improving the quality and efficiency of greenhouse rotary tillage operation,reducing the work intensity and operation risk of operators,and achieving environmentally friendly characteristics.Most of the existing self-propelled tillers rely on manual adjustment of the tillage depth.Moreover,the consistency and stability of the tillage depth are difficult to guarantee.In this study,the automatic control method of tillage depth of a self-propelled electric tiller is investigated.A method of applying the fuzzy PID(Proportional Integral Derivative)control method to the tillage depth adjustment system of a tiller is also proposed to realize automatic control.The system uses the real-time detection of the resistance sensor and angle sensor.The controller runs the electronically controlled hydraulic system to adjust the force and position comprehensively.The fuzzy control algorithm is used in the operation error control to realize the double-parameter control of the tillage depth.The simulation and experimental verification of the system are conducted.Results show that the control system applying fuzzy PID can improve the soil breaking rate by 3%in the operation process based on reducing the stability variation of tillage depth by 24%.The control strategy can reach the set value of tillage depth quickly and accurately.It can also meet the requirement of tillage depth consistency during the operation.