CMMI-EPSRC: Enhanced Control Methods for Aerial and Space Vehicles Equipped with Limited Force Actuators

该研究由NSF工程理事会- UKRI工程和物理科学研究理事会牵头机构机会（ENG-EPSRC），NSF 20- 510资助。该资助将资助能够改进航空和航天飞行器（如无人机，导弹，火箭和行星着陆器）设计的研究，同时确保所需的飞行性能，从而促进科学进步并确保国防安全。航空和航天飞行器用来控制其飞行路径的螺旋桨和推进器在它们所能产生的力方面是有限的。如果飞行器的飞行控制系统要求的力超过这样的限制，则结果可能是不期望的飞行性能，这阻碍了使命。为了避免这种情况，工程师们目前以增加车辆重量和成本为代价来利用超大型推进器。相比之下，在这个项目中开发的控制方法允许车辆设计与较小尺寸的致动器，同时防止不稳定的飞行行为。应用包括火星着陆器和上升飞行器，它们需要重量轻，以降低生产成本和能源消耗，但需要飞行控制系统，可以补偿不可预测的环境力，否则会阻止飞行器遵循期望的轨迹。综合研究、教学和外展活动将通过与大学研究所和外部中心的附属机构以及与为目前代表性不足的人群提供服务的学术组织的合作来开展，这些中心促进工程和其他STEM部门之间的多学科合作。美国和联合王国的研究人员联合举办讲习班和跨界指导研究生，将带来产生更广泛影响的独特机会。与工业界和联邦研究机构的合作将使知识转移和可能的技术commercialization.This研究的目的是作出根本性的贡献的应用程序的反windup补偿理论的非线性系统所管辖的刚体dynamics，和执行器控制分配和执行器量化的问题，自然出现在这样的系统。它实现了这一结果，有目的地利用特定的非线性结构的刚体动力学，并通过提高抗饱和补偿设计方法的线性系统，以处理长时间的致动器饱和。研究结果将产生新的现实控制架构，确保在各种飞行条件下的稳定性，即使在非线性动态普遍存在的情况下，也能在饱和控制信号存在时提供严格的性能保证。高保真着陆器和上升飞行器模型的模拟以及四轴飞行器的实验将用于演示设计方法并验证理论性能预测。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估而被认为值得支持。

This research was funded under the NSF Directorate for Engineering - UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Lead Agency Opportunity (ENG-EPSRC), NSF 20-510.This grant will fund research that enables improved design of aerial and space vehicles, such as drones, missiles, rockets, and planetary landers, while ensuring desired flight performance, thereby promoting the progress of science and securing the national defense. Propellers and thrusters used by aerial and space vehicles to control their flight path are limited in the forces they can produce. If the vehicle’s flight control system requests forces that exceed such limits, a consequence may be undesirable flight performance that hinders the mission. To avoid this, engineers presently exploit over-sized thrusters at the expense of increased vehicle weight and cost. In contrast, the control methods developed in this project allow vehicles to be designed with smaller-sized actuators while safeguarding against unstable flight behavior. Applications include Martian landers and ascent vehicles that need to be lightweight in order to reduce costs of production and energy consumption, yet require flight control systems that can compensate for unpredictable environmental forces that otherwise prevent the vehicles from following a desired trajectory. Integrated research, teaching, and outreach activities will be carried out through affiliations with university institutes and external centers that foster multidisciplinary collaboration among engineering and other STEM departments, and through collaborations with scholarly organizations that serve currently underrepresented populations. Unique opportunities for broader impact will result from jointly organized workshops and cross-border mentorship of graduate students by researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Engagement with industry and federal research agencies will allow knowledge transfer and possible technology commercialization.This research aims to make fundamental contributions to the application of anti-windup compensation theory to nonlinear systems governed by rigid body dynamics, and to problems of actuator control allocation and actuator quantization that naturally arise in such systems. It achieves this outcome by purposely exploiting the particular nonlinear structure of rigid body dynamics and by enhancing anti-windup compensation design methods for linear systems in order to handle prolonged periods of actuator saturation. The outcomes from the research will yield new realistic control architectures that ensure stability across a wide range of flight conditions, with rigorous performance guarantees also when saturated control signals exist, even when nonlinear dynamics are prevalent. Simulations of high-fidelity lander and ascent vehicle models, as well as experiments with quadcopters, will be used to demonstrate the design methods and validate the theoretical performance predictions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.