Output-feedback Dynamic Surface Control for a Class of Nonlinear Non-minimum Phase Systems

In this paper, an output-feedback tracking controller is proposed for a class of nonlinear non-minimum phase systems.To keep the unstable internal dynamics bounded, the method of output redefinition is applied to let the stability of the internal dynamics depend on that of redefined output, thus we only need to consider the new external dynamics rather than internal dynamics in the process of designing control law. To overcome the explosion of complexity problem in traditional backstepping design, the dynamic surface control(DSC) method is firstly used to deal with the problem of tracking control for the nonlinear non-minimum phase systems. The proposed outputfeedback DSC controller not only forces the system output to asymptotically track the desired trajectory, but also drives the unstable internal dynamics to follow its corresponding bounded and causal ideal internal dynamics, which is solved via stable system center method. Simulation results illustrate the validity of the proposed output-feedback DSC controller.

Static aeroelasticity of the propulsion system of ion propulsion unmanned aerial vehicles

“Ionic wind”generators are used as the main propulsion system in ion propulsion unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).Owing to the large size and poor stiffness of the electrode array in the propulsion system,the electrode array is prone to deformation under the flight load.In this work,the thrust characteristics and static aeroelastic properties of“ionic wind”propulsion systems were analyzed in detail.The simulation model for an“ionic wind”propulsion system was established by coupling a two-dimensional gas discharge model with a gas dynamics model.The influences of electrode voltage,spacing,size,and shape on the performance of the propulsion system were investigated.The fluid-solid interaction method was used to solve static aeroelastic characteristics under deformation.The aerodynamic and thrust performances of the elastic state and the rigid state were compared.It was found that the operating voltage,the distance between two electrodes,and the emitter radius had greater impacts on the thrust of the propulsion system.The propulsion system had a small contribution to the lift but a large contribution to the drag.In the elastic state,the lift coefficient accounted for 12.2%,and the drag coefficient accounted for 25.8%.Under the action of the downwash airflow from the wing,the propulsion system formed an upward moment around the center of mass,which contributed greatly to the pitching moment derivative of the whole aircraft.In the elastic state,the pitching moment derivative accounted for 29.7%.After elastic deformation,the thrust action point moved upward by 28.7 mm.Hence,the no lift pitching moment is reduced by 0.104 N$m,and the pitching moment coefficient is reduced by 0.014,causing a great impact on the longitudinal trimming of the whole aircraft.

Incremental support vector machine algorithm based on multi-kernel learning

A new incremental support vector machine （SVM） algorithm is proposed which is based on multiple kernel learning. Through introducing multiple kernel learning into the SVM incremental learning, large scale data set learning problem can be solved effectively. Furthermore, different punishments are adopted in allusion to the training subset and the acquired support vectors, which may help to improve the performance of SVM. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm can not only solve the model selection problem in SVM incremental learning, but also improve the classification or prediction precision.

Airfoil design optimization based on lattice Boltzmann method and adjoint approach

We present a new aerodynamic design method based on the lattice Boltzmann method （LBM） and the adjoint approach. The flow field and the adjoint equation are numerically simulated by the GILBM （generalized form of interpolation supplemented LBM） on non-uniform meshes. The first-order approximation for the equilibrium dis- tribution function on the boundary is proposed to diminish the singularity of boundary conditions. Further, a new treatment of the solid boundary in the LBM is described par- ticularly for the airfoil optimization design problem. For a given objective function, the adjoint equation and its boundary conditions are derived analytically. The feasibility and accuracy of the new approach have been perfectly validated by the design optimization of NACA0012 airfoil.

Application of Active Flow Control Technique for Gust Load Alleviation

A new gust load alleviation technique is presented in this paper based on active flow control. Numerical studies are conducted to investigate the beneficial effects on the aerodynamic characteristics of the quasi ＂Global Hawk＂ airfoil using arrays of jets during the gust process. Based on unsteady Navier-Stokes equations, the grid-velocity method is introduced to simulate the gust influence, and dynamic response in vertical gust flow perturbation is investigated for the airfoil as well. An unsteady surface transpiration boundary condition is enforced over a user specified portion of the airfoil’s surface to emulate the time dependent velocity boundary conditions. Firstly, after applying this method to simulate typical NACA0006 airfoil gust response to a step change in the angle of attack, it shows that the indicial responses of the airfoil make good agreement with the exact theoretical values and the calculated values in references. Furthermore, gust response characteristic for the quasi ＂Global Hawk＂ airfoil is analyzed. Five kinds of flow control techniques are introduced as steady blowing, steady suction, unsteady blowing, unsteady suction and synthetic jets. The physical analysis of the influence on the effects of gust load alleviation is proposed to provide some guidelines for practice. Numerical results have indicated that active flow control technique,as a new technology of gust load alleviation, can affect and suppress the fluid disturbances caused by gust so as to achieve the purpose of gust load alleviation.

Robust design and analysis of a conformal expansion nozzle with inverse-design idea

This paper examines robust optimization design and analysis of a conformal expansion nozzle of flying wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle （UAV） with the inverse-design idea. In view of flow features and stealth constraints, the inverse-design idea is described and the uncertainty-based robust design model is presented. A robust design system employs this model to combine deterministic optimization and robust optimization and is applied into design of a conformal expansion nozzle. The results indicate that design optimization can conform to the anticipation of the inversedesign idea and significantly improve the aerodynamic performance that meet the requirement of 6σ. The present method is a feasible nozzle design strategy that integrates robust optimization and inverse-design.

Correction method of airfoil thickness effect in hinge moment calculation of a folding wing

The influences of airfoil thickness on the aerodynamic loading distribution and the hinge moments of folding wing aircraft are presented in this work.The traditional panel method shows deficiencies in the calculation of folding wing's hinge moments.Thus, a thickness correction strategy for the aerodynamic model with CFD results is proposed, and an aeroelastic flight simulation platform is constructed based on the secondary development of ADAMS.Based on the platform,the developed aerodynamic model is verified, then the flight-folding process of the folding wing aircraft is simulated, and the influences of airfoil thickness on the results are investigated.Results show that the developed aerodynamic model can effectively describe the thickness effect of the folding wing.Airfoil thickness, which cannot be considered by the panel method, has a great influence on the hinge moments during the folding process, and the thickness correction has great significance in the calculation of folding wing's hinge moments.

Integration of Manufacturing Cost into Structural Optimization of Composite Wings

The manufacturing cost is a significant factor that must be considered in the structural design of a composite wing. A multi-objective optimization method for the tradeoff between manufacturing cost and weight of composite wing structure is de- veloped by integrating the manufacturing cost model into the traditional wing structural optimization. A two-level optimization method is proposed to carry out the tradeoff between manufacturing cost and weight, in which the design variables include both structural layout and dimensions and a cost model is incorporated into structural optimization. The manufacturing cost model for a composite wing and the detail procedure for solving this tradeoff problem are presented. The application of the method to the composite wing structural design of an unmanned aerial vehicle is illustrated to verify the method. The application indicates that the method is able to find the Pareto optimal set of minimum structural weight and manufacturing cost. Based on the Pareto optimal set, one can conduct the tradeoff between manufacturing cost and weight of wing structures.

Review of Recent Progress in Robotic Knee Prosthesis Related Techniques:Structure,Actuation and Control

As the essential technology of human-robotics interactive wearable devices,the robotic knee prosthesis can provide above-knee amputations with functional knee compensations to realize their physical and psychological social regression.With the development of mechanical and mechatronic science and technology,the fully active knee prosthesis that can provide subjects with actuating torques has demonstrated a better wearing performance in slope walking and stair ascent when compared with the passive and the semi-active ones.Additionally,with intelligent human-robotics control strategies and algorithms,the wearing effect of the knee prosthesis has been greatly enhanced in terms of stance stability and swing mobility.Therefore,to help readers to obtain an overview of recent progress in robotic knee prosthesis,this paper systematically categorized knee prostheses according to their integrated functions and introduced related research in the past ten years(2010−2020)regarding(1)mechanical design,including uniaxial,four-bar,and multi-bar knee structures,(2)actuating technology,including rigid and elastic actuation,and(3)control method,including mode identification,motion prediction,and automatic control.Quantitative and qualitative analysis and comparison of robotic knee prosthesis-related techniques are conducted.The development trends are concluded as follows:(1)bionic and lightweight structures with better mechanical performance,(2)bionic elastic actuation with energy-saving effect,(3)artificial intelligence-based bionic prosthetic control.Besides,challenges and innovative insights of customized lightweight bionic knee joint structure,highly efficient compact bionic actuation,and personalized daily multi-mode gait adaptation are also discussed in-depth to facilitate the future development of the robotic knee prosthesis.

Non-intrusive reduced-order model for predicting transonic flow with varying geometries

A Non-Intrusive Reduced-Order Model(NIROM)based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition(POD)has been proposed for predicting the flow fields of transonic airfoils with geometry parameters.To provide a better reduced-order subspace to approximate the real flow field,a domain decomposition method has been used to separate the hard-to-predict regions from the full field and POD has been adopted in the regions individually.An Artificial Neural Network(ANN)has replaced the Radial Basis Function(RBF)to interpolate the coefficients of the POD modes,aiming at improving the approximation accuracy of the NIROM for non-samples.When predicting the flow fields of transonic airfoils,the proposed NIROM has demonstrated a high performance.

Haze removal for UAV reconnaissance images using layered scattering model

During the unmanned aerial vehicles （UAV） reconnaissance missions in the middle-low troposphere, the reconnaissance images are blurred and degraded due to the scattering process of aerosol under fog, haze and other weather conditions, which reduce the image contrast and color fidelity. Considering the characteristics of UAV itself, this paper proposes a new algorithm for dehazing UAV reconnaissance images based on layered scattering model. The algorithm starts with the atmosphere scattering model, using the imaging distance, squint angle and other metadata acquired by the UAV. Based on the original model, a layered scattering model for dehazing is proposed. Considering the relationship between wave-length and extinction coefficient, the airlight intensity and extinction coefficient are calculated in the model. Finally, the restored images are obtained. In addition, a classification method based on Bayesian classification is used for classifica- tion of haze concentration of the image, avoiding the trouble of manual working. Then we evaluate the haze removal results according to both the subjective and objective criteria. The experimental results show that compared with the origin image, the comprehensive index of the image restored by our method increases by 282.84%, which proves that our method can obtain excellent dehazing effect.

LPV modeling and controller design for body freedom flutter suppression subject to actuator saturation

In recent years,the Active Flutter Suppression(AFS)employing Linear ParameterVarying(LPV)framework has become a hot spot in the research field.Nevertheless,the flutter suppression technique is facing two severe challenges.On the one hand,due to the fatal risk of flight test near critical airspeed,it is hard to obtain the accurate mathematical model of the aeroelastic system from the testing data.On the other hand,saturation of the actuator may degrade the closed-loop performance,which was often neglected in the past work.To tackle these two problems,a new active controller design procedure is proposed to suppress flutter in this paper.Firstly,with the aid of LPV model order reduction method and State-space Model Interpolation of Local Estimates(SMILE)technique,a set of high-fidelity Linear Time-Invariant(LTI)models which are usually derived from flight tests at different subcritical airspeeds are reduced and interpolated to construct an LPV model of an aeroelastic system.And then,the unstable aeroelastic dynamics beyond critical airspeed are‘predicted’by extrapolating the resulting LPV model.Secondly,based on the control-oriented LPV model,an AFS controller in LPV framework which is composed of a nominal LPV controller and an LPV anti-windup compensator is designed to suppress the aeroelastic vibration and overcome the performance degradation caused by actuator saturation.Although the nominal LPV controller may have superior performance in linear simulation in which the saturation effect is ignored,the results of the numerical simulations show that the nominal LPV controller fails to suppress the Body Freedom Flutter(BFF)when encountering the actuator saturation.However,the LPV anti-windup compensator not only enhances the nominal controller’s performance but also helps the nominal controller to stabilize the unstable aeroelastic system whenencountering serious actuator saturation.