Experiment and analysis of the neutralization of the electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster

An electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster must emit an electron current equivalent to its ion beam current to prevent the thruster system from being electrically charged. This operation is defined as neutralization. The factors which influence neutralization are categorized into the ion beam current parameters, the neutralizer input parameters, and the neutralizer position. To understand the mechanism of neutralization, an experiment and a calculation study on how these factors influence thruster neutralization are presented. The experiment results show that the minimum bias voltage of the neutralizer was -60 V at the ion beam current of 80 mA for the argon propellant, and a critical gas flow rate existed, below which the coupling voltage increased sharply. Based on the experiment, the neutralization was analyzed by means of a onedimensional calculation model. The computation results show that the coupling voltage was influenced by the beam divergence and the negative potential zone near the grids.

Model-free Adaptive Control for Spacecraft Attitude

A model-free adaptive control method is proposed for the spacecrafts whose dynamical parameters change over time and cannot be acquired accurately. The algorithm is based on full form dynamic linearization.A dimension reduction matrix is introduced to construct an augmented system with the same dimension input and output. The design of the controller depends on the system input and output data rather than the knowledge of the controlled plant. The numerical simulation results show that the improved controller can deal with different models with the same set of controller parameters,and the controller performance is better than that of PD controller for the time-varying system with disturbance.

Inertial parameter estimation and control of non-cooperative target with unilateral contact constraint

In this paper, the relative sliding motion between the target and the manipulator’s endeffector is considered and characterized as a unilateral contact constraint. A new possible solution is presented to estimate the inertial parameters of a non-cooperative target while the relative sliding motion exists. First, the detailed analysis of the dynamical model is presented, and a parameterexplicit linear time-varying model is obtained. Then, an extended state observer is constructed based on the new model, which can effectively estimate the unknown inertial parameters of the target when relative sliding motion exists. As the modified reactionless controller requires the knowledge of inertial parameters, a hybrid post-capture control scheme is also established based on the switch law between different controllers. The correctness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm are validated by numerical simulation, which proves a potential framework for the non-cooperative target postcapture operation.

Weak value amplification via second-order correlated technique

We propose a new framework combining weak measurement and second-order correlated technique. The theoretical analysis shows that weak value amplification （WVA） experiment can also be implemented by a second-order correlated system. We then build two-dimensional second-order correlated function patterns for achieving higher amplification factor and discuss the signal-to-noise ratio influence. Several advantages can be obtained by our proposal. For instance, detectors with high resolution are not necessary. Moreover, detectors with low saturation intensity are available in WVA setup. Finally, type-one technical noise can be effectively suppressed.

An improved equivalent beam model of large periodic beam-like space truss structures

Space truss structures are essential components for space-based remote sensing loads with high spatial and temporal resolutions.To achieve high-precision vibration control,an accurate and efficient dynamics model is essential.In addition to the current equivalent beam model(EBM)based on the classical continuum theory,an improved equivalent beam model(IEBM)is proposed that considers the impact of the distinction between trusses and beams on torsional and shear deformations,as well as the impact of shear deformation on flexural rigidity.According to the displacement expressions of spatial beams,torsional,shear,and bending correction coefficients are introduced to derive expressions of strain energy and kinetic energy.The energy equivalence principle is then utilized to calculate the elasticity and inertia matrices,and dynamics equations are established using the finite element method.Subsequently,an IEBM is constructed by employing the particle swarm optimization approach to determine the correction coefficients with the truss natural frequency as the optimization target.The natural vibration characteristics of the structure are estimated for various material properties.Compared with the full-scale finite element model,the EBM reaches a maximum error of 80%for a low modulus of elasticity,while the maximum error of the IEBM is less than 2%for any given parameters,indicating its superior accuracy to the EBM.

Influence of the source’s energy fluctuation on computational ghost imaging and effective correction approaches

We investigate the influence of the source’s energy fluctuation on both computational ghost imaging and computational ghost imaging via sparsity constraint,and if the reconstruction quality will decrease with the increase of the source’s energy fluctuation.In order to overcome the problem of image degradation,a correction approach against the source’s energy fluctuation is proposed by recording the source’s fluctuation with a monitor before modulation and correcting the echo signal or the intensity of computed reference light field with the data recorded by the monitor.Both the numerical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that computational ghost imaging via sparsity constraint can be enhanced by correcting the echo signal or the intensity of computed reference light field,while only correcting the echo signal is valid for computational ghost imaging.

Attitude control without angular velocity measurement for flexible satellites

In this paper, by using quaternion models, the problem of attitude control is investigated for a class of flexible satellites. Two control laws are presented for the considered flexible satellite models to guarantee convergence of the closed-loop systems without using angular velocity measurement. One is in the form of a partial state feedback for the case where the modal variable is available, and the other is in the form of an observer-based partial state feedback for the case where the modal variable cannot be measured. Finally, an example is employed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control laws.

Iteration framework for solving mixed lubrication computation problems

The general discrete scheme of time-varying Reynolds equation loses the information of the previous step,which makes it unreasonable.A discretization formula of the Reynolds equation,which is based on the Crank-Nicolson method,is proposed considering the physical message of the previous step.Gauss-Seidel relaxation and distribution relaxation are adopted for the linear operators of pressure during the numerical solution procedure.In addition to the convergent criteria of pressure distribution and load,an estimation framework is developed to investigate the relative error of the most important term in the Reynolds equation.Smooth surface with frill contacts and mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication is tested for validation.The asperity contact and sinusoidal wavy surface are examined by the proposed discrete scheme.Results show the precipitous decline in the boundary of the contact area.The relative error suggests that the pressure distribution is reliable and reflects the accuracy and effectiveness of the developed method.

Feature-aided pose estimation approach based on variational auto-encoder structure for spacecrafts

Real-time 6 Degree-of-Freedom(DoF)pose estimation is of paramount importance for various on-orbit tasks.Benefiting from the development of deep learning,Convolutional Neural Networks(CNNs)in feature extraction has yielded impressive achievements for spacecraft pose estimation.To improve the robustness and interpretability of CNNs,this paper proposes a Pose Estimation approach based on Variational Auto-Encoder structure(PE-VAE)and a Feature-Aided pose estimation approach based on Variational Auto-Encoder structure(FA-VAE),which aim to accurately estimate the 6 DoF pose of a target spacecraft.Both methods treat the pose vector as latent variables,employing an encoder-decoder network with a Variational Auto-Encoder(VAE)structure.To enhance the precision of pose estimation,PE-VAE uses the VAE structure to introduce reconstruction mechanism with the whole image.Furthermore,FA-VAE enforces feature shape constraints by exclusively reconstructing the segment of the target spacecraft with the desired shape.Comparative evaluation against leading methods on public datasets reveals similar accuracy with a threefold improvement in processing speed,showcasing the significant contribution of VAE structures to accuracy enhancement,and the additional benefit of incorporating global shape prior features.