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The three-axis simulator relies on the air film between the air bearing and the bearing seat to achieve weightlessness and the frictionless motion condition, which is essential for simulating the micro-disturbance torque of a satellite in outer space. However, at the beginning of the experiment, the disturbance torque caused by the misalignment between the center of gravity of the simulator and the center of rotation of the bearing is the most important factor restricting the use of the space three-axis simulator. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to set the balance adjustment system on the simulator to compensate the disturbance torque caused by the eccentricity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, a study of L1 adaptive automatic balancing control method for micro satellite with motor without other actuators is proposed. L1 adaptive control algorithm adds the low-pass filter to the control law, which in a certain sense to reduce the high-frequency signal and speed up the response time of the controlled system. At the same time, by estimating the adaptive parameter uncertainty in object, the output error of the state predictor and the controlled object can be stabilized under Lyapunov condition, and the robustness of the system is also improved. The automatic balancing method of PID is also studied in this paper.

Through this automatic balancing mechanism, the gravity disturbance torque can be effectively reduced down to 10⁻⁶ Nm, and the automatic balancing time can be controlled within 7 s.

This paper introduces an automatic balancing mechanism. The experimental results show that the mechanism can greatly improve the convergence speed while guaranteeing the control accuracy, and ensuring the feasibility of the large angle maneuver of spacecraft three-axis simulator.

The aim of this paper is the implementation and validation of control and guidance algorithms for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) autopilots.

The path-following control of the UAV can be separated into different layers: inner loop for pitch and roll attitude control, outer loop on heading, altitude and airspeed control for the waypoints tracking and waypoint navigation. Two control laws are defined: one based on proportional integrative derivative (PID) controllers both for inner and outer loops and one based on the combination of PIDs and an adaptive controller.

Good results can be obtained in terms of trajectory tracking (based on waypoints) and of parameter variations. The adaptive control law guarantees smoothing responses and less oscillations and glitches on the control deflections.

The proposed controllers are easily implementable on-board and are computationally efficient.

The algorithm validation via hardware in the loop simulations can be used to reduce the platform set-up time and the risk of losing the prototype during the flight tests.

This paper aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of a fault-tolerant flight control method by using simple adaptive control (SAC) with PID controller.

Numerical simulations and flight tests are executed for pitch angle and roll angle control of research aircraft MuPAL-α under the following fault cases: sudden reduction in aileron effectiveness, sudden reduction in elevator effectiveness and loss of longitudinal static stability.

The simulations and flight tests reveal the effectiveness of the proposed SAC with PID controller as a fault-tolerant flight controller.

This research includes implications for the development of vehicles’ robustness.

This study proposes novel SAC-based flight controller and actually demonstrates the effectiveness by flight test.

The purpose of this paper is to gain trajectory-tracking controllers for autonomous aircraft are optimized using a modified evolutionary, or genetic algorithm (GA).

The GA design utilizes real representation for the individual consisting of the collection of all controller gains subject to tuning. The initial population is generated randomly over pre-specified ranges. Alternatively, initial individuals are produced as random variations from a heuristically tuned set of gains to increase convergence time. A two-point crossover mechanism and a probabilistic mutation mechanism represent the genetic alterations performed on the population. The environment is represented by a performance index (PI) composed of a set of metrics based on tracking error and control activity in response to a commanded trajectory. Roulette-wheel selection with elitist strategy are implemented. A PI normalization scheme is also implemented to increase the speed of convergence. A flexible control laws design environment is developed, which can be used to easily optimize the gains for a variety of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control laws architectures.

The performance of the aircraft trajectory-tracking controllers was shown to improve significantly through the GA optimization. Additionally, the novel normalization modification was shown to encourage more rapid convergence to an optimal solution.

The GA paradigm shows much promise in the optimization of highly non-linear aircraft trajectory-tracking controllers. The proposed optimization tool facilitates the investigation of novel control architectures regardless of complexity and dimensionality.

The addition of the evolutionary optimization to the WVU UAV simulation environment enhances significantly its capabilities for autonomous flight algorithm development, testing, and evaluation. The normalization methodology proposed in this paper has been shown to appreciably speed up the convergence of GAs.

The paper provides a flexible generalized framework for UAV control system evolutionary optimization. It includes specific novel structural elements and mechanisms for improved convergence as well as a comprehensive PI for trajectory tracking.

The growing use of small unmanned rotorcraft in civilian applications means that safe operation is increasingly important. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the fault tolerant properties to faults in the actuators of an C ₁ adaptive controller for a quadrotor vehicle.

C ₁ adaptive control provides fast adaptation along with decoupling between adaptation and robustness. This makes the approach a suitable candidate for fault tolerant control of quadrotor and other multirotor vehicles. In the paper, the design of an C ₁ adaptive controller is presented. The controller is compared to a fixed-gain LQR controller.

The C ₁ adaptive controller is shown to have improved performance when subject to actuator faults, and a higher range of actuator fault tolerance.

The control scheme is tested in simulation of a simple model that ignores aerodynamic and gyroscopic effects. Hence for further work, testing with a more complete model is recommended followed by implementation on an actual platform and flight test. The effect of sensor noise should also be considered along with investigation into the influence of wind disturbances and tolerance to sensor failures. Furthermore, quadrotors cannot tolerate total failure of a rotor without loss of control of one of the degrees of freedom, this aspect requires further investigation.

Applying the C ₁ adaptive controller to a hexrotor or octorotor would increase the reliability of such vehicles without recourse to methods that require fault detection schemes and control reallocation as well as providing tolerance to a total loss of a rotor.

In order for quadrotors and other similar unmanned air vehicles to undertake many proposed roles, a high level of safety is required. Hence the controllers should be fault tolerant.

Fault tolerance to partial actuator/effector faults is demonstrated using an C ₁ adaptive controller.

The purpose of this paper is to find an omnidirectional robust gust response stabilization (GRS) scheme with anti-disturbance and state-limited features.

Disturbance observer and barrier Lyapunov techniques, which can, respectively, estimate the lumped disturbances of the dynamic system in real-time and ensure the middle states within some prescribed ranges according to some flight safety indexes.

In the existing literature, almost all of the GRS controllers are either only for the longitudinal dynamics or only for the latitudinal dynamics. Few studies have considered the gust response alleviation problem with omnidirectional wind disturbance and full aircraft model.

This paper proposes a fresh scheme to deal with a more holistic GRS problem; the disturbance observer based (DOB) barrier Lyapunov backstepping longitudinal controller has been put forward; DOB nonlinear dynamic inversion to handle the multi-input-multi-output lateral dynamics; and to closely connect the two loops of the latitudinal dynamics, a manipulating variable conversion method is proposed.

The hybrid control system of the nonlinear PID (NLPID) controller and improved active disturbance rejection control (IADRC) are proposed for stabilization purposes for a 6-degree freedom (DoF) quadrotor system with the existence of exogenous disturbances and system uncertainties.

IADRC units are designed for the altitude and attitude systems, while NLPID controllers are designed for the x−y position system on the quadrotor nonlinear model. The proposed controlling scheme is implemented using MATLAB/Simulink environment and is compared with the traditional PID controller and NLPID controller.

Different tests have been done, such as step reference tracking, hovering mode, trajectory tracking, exogenous disturbances and system uncertainties. The simulation results showed the demonstrated performance and stability gained by using the proposed scheme as compared with the other two controllers, even when the system was exposed to different disturbances and uncertainties.

The study proposes an NLPID-IADRC scheme to stabilize the motion of the quadrotor system while tracking a specified trajectory in the presence of exogenous disturbances and parameter uncertainties. The proposed multi-objective Output Performance Index (OPI) was used to obtain the optimum integrated time of the absolute error for each subsystem, UAV quadrotor system energy consumption and for minimizing the chattering phenomenon by adding the integrated time absolute of the control signals.

This paper aims to propose a novel system identification and resonance suppression strategy for motor-driven system with high-order flexible manipulator.

In this paper, first, a unified mathematical model is proposed to describe both the flexible joints and the flexible link system. Then to suppress the resonance brought by the system flexibility, a model based high-order notch filter controller is proposed. To get the true value of the parameters of the high-order flexible manipulator system, a fuzzy-Kalman filter-based two-step system identification algorithm is proposed.

Compared to the traditional system identification algorithm, the proposed two-step system identification algorithm can accurately identify the unknown parameters of the high order flexible manipulator system with high dynamic response. The performance of the two-step system identification algorithm and the model-based high-order notch filter is verified via simulation and experimental results.

The proposed system identification method can identify the system parameters with both high accuracy and high dynamic response. With the proposed system identification and model-based controller, the positioning accuracy of the flexible manipulator can be greatly improved.

This paper aims to detect small dynamic displacements by analysis of L1 Global Positioning System carrier frequency using an improved method for collecting data and filtering techniques on monitoring large structures. It is proposed to analyze the phase residuals directly from the raw phase observable data collected in a short baseline during a limited time span, in lieu of obtaining the residual data file from regular GPS processing programs.

The approach of this paper is an update on the method based on the interferometer idea for analyzing the Global Positioning Systems signals applying adaptive filtering techniques on the phase residuals computed through the double difference adjusted by the 3rd order polynomial. The method is based on the frequency domain analysis of the phase residuals resulted from the L1 double difference static data processing of only two satellites.

This research improves the ability to characterize the dynamic behavior of large structures though the detection of millimeter‐level data of structural amplitude oscillation response and its frequency value.

Support of Civil Engineers by collaboration on monitoring oscillations of spans and towers of large bridges; determination of amplitude oscillations value and low‐frequency modal values. The paper presents two trials to verify the proposed methodology for using GPS as a tool for monitoring large structures.

The paper presents a comprehensive framework and implementation approach to demonstrate the capabilities of Global Positioning System as a tool for monitoring large structures providing accurate response data at high levels of precision.

Political scientists have taken up behavior genetics (BG) at a momentous time in the science of genetics. Momentous, because the science of genetics is undergoing a paradigm shift [Petronis, A. (2010). Epigenetics as a unifying principle in the aetiology of complex traits and diseases. Nature, 465(7299), 721–727]. This shifting paradigm poses a significant challenge to both the prevailing methodologies of behavior genetics – twin, family, adoption studies – and one of the most noteworthy findings to emerge from such studies, that is, which we can call the principle of minimal parental effects. This is the supposition that the effect of the shared parental rearing environment on the behavioral phenotypes of offspring is statistically equivalent to zero (Plomin & Daniels, 1987). It is not uncommon nowadays to find twin, adoption, and family studies utilized in the study of political behavior (e.g., Alford, J., Funk, C. L., & Hibbing, J. R. (2005). Are political orientations genetically transmitted? American Political Science Review, 99(2), 153–167.); likewise, the principle of minimal parental effects is frequently invoked in such studies (e.g., Mondak, J. J., Hibbing, M. V., Canache, D., Seligson, M. A., & Anderson, M. A. (2010). Personality and civic engagement: An integrative framework for the study of trait effects on political behavior. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 85–110.). As we shall see, the challenge comes from recent discoveries in genetics that are radically transforming our understanding of the genome and its relationship to environment.