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1 – 10 of over 14000Yanjie Chen, Weiwei Zhan, Yibin Huang, Zhiqiang Miao and Yaonan Wang
This paper aims to investigate the distributed formation control problem for a multi-quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle system without linear velocity feedbacks.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the distributed formation control problem for a multi-quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle system without linear velocity feedbacks.
Design/methodology/approach
A nonlinear controller is proposed based on the orthogonal group SE(3) to obviate singularities and ambiguities of the traditional parameterized attitude representations. A cascade structure is applied in the distributed controller design. The inner loop is responsible for attitude control, and the outer loop is responsible for translational dynamics. To ensure a linear-velocity-free characteristic, some auxiliary variables are introduced to construct virtual signals in distributed controller design. The stability analysis of the proposed distributed control method by the Lyapunov function is provided as well.
Findings
A group of four quadrotors with constant reference linear velocity and a group of six quadrotors with varying reference linear velocity are adopted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Originality/value
This is a new innovation for multi-robot formation control method to improve assembly automation.
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Keywords
Takaya Inamori, Nobutada Sako and Shinichi Nakasuka
This paper aims to present an attitude determination and control system for a nano‐astrometry satellite which requires precise angular rate control. Focus of the research is…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an attitude determination and control system for a nano‐astrometry satellite which requires precise angular rate control. Focus of the research is methods to achieve the requirement.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to obtain astrometry data, the satellite attitude should be controlled to an accuracy of 0.05°. Furthermore, attitude spin rate must be controlled to an accuracy of 4×10−7 rad/s during observation. In this paper the following unique ideas to achieve these requirements are introduced: magnetic disturbance compensation and rate estimation using star blurred images.
Findings
This paper presents the feasibility of a high accurate attitude control system in nano‐ and micro‐satellite missions.
Practical implications
This paper presents a possibility of the application of nano‐satellites to remote‐sensing and astronomy mission, which requires accurate attitude control.
Originality/value
Originalities of the paper are the methods to achieve the high accurate attitude control: magnetic disturbance compensation and angular rate estimation using star images.
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Keywords
Lie Yu, Jia Chen, Yukang Tian, Yunzhou Sun and Lei Ding
The purpose of this paper is to present a control strategy which uses two independent PID controllers to realize the hovering control for unmanned aerial systems (UASs). In…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a control strategy which uses two independent PID controllers to realize the hovering control for unmanned aerial systems (UASs). In addition, the aim of using two PID controller is to achieve the position control and velocity control simultaneously.
Design/methodology/approach
The dynamic of the UASs is mathematically modeled. One PID controller is used for position tracking control, while the other is selected for the vertical component of velocity tracking control. Meanwhile, fuzzy logic algorithm is presented to use the actual horizontal component of velocity to compute the desired position.
Findings
Based on this fuzzy logic algorithm, the control error of the horizontal component of velocity tracking control is narrowed gradually to be zero. The results show that the fuzzy logic algorithm can make the UASs hover still in the air and vertical to the ground.
Social implications
The acquired results are based on simulation not experiment.
Originality/value
This is the first study to use two independent PID controllers to realize stable hovering control for UAS. It is also the first to use the velocity of the UAS to calculate the desired position.
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Hao Zhou, Tawfiqur Rahman and Wanchun Chen
– The purpose of this paper is to present a novel guidance law for hypervelocity descent to a stationary target such that the impact angle and impact velocity can be constrained.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a novel guidance law for hypervelocity descent to a stationary target such that the impact angle and impact velocity can be constrained.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed method is based on inverse dynamics and is designed using a third-order Bézier curve approximation to the reference trajectory.
Findings
Simulations indicate that the proposed law is able to satisfy impact angle and impact velocity constraints as well as follow control and path limitations in the case of guidance under perturbations. Comparisons with other methods also indicate better performance.
Research limitations/implications
The onboard implementation requires an offline selection of Bézier parameters.
Practical implications
The presented scheme could be extremely important for further research on automated onboard control of impact angle and velocity for both re-entry and terminal guidance laws.
Originality/value
This paper presents an innovative method for the solution of an inverse dynamics-based guidance law using Bézier curve approximation.
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Jeffrey D. Will, Kevin L. Moore and Ian K. Lynn
Mobile manipulators offer great capability, but their teleoperation is often an overwhelming task for humans due to the many degrees‐of‐freedom of control available from both the…
Abstract
Purpose
Mobile manipulators offer great capability, but their teleoperation is often an overwhelming task for humans due to the many degrees‐of‐freedom of control available from both the mobile platform and the associated manipulator. The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how these controls should be mapped to the robotic mobile platform and its manipulator for “optimal teleoperation”, for the special case of an omnidirectional mobile platform and two joint (with wrist) planar manipulator.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors summarize the results of a study to optimize the teleoperation interface for a two‐link planar manipulator with a wrist that was mounted on an omni‐directional mobile platform.
Findings
The research comprised a carefully‐controlled study using 33 human subjects in seven different treatments of possible control interfaces.
Research limitations/implications
Users performed movement and manipulation tasks, and their performance was measured on several scales.
Practical implications
Based on this study, the authors present guidelines for optimizing mobile manipulator control interfaces and motivate future research using the method of controlled multi‐user trials.
Social implications
This research has the potential to guide the improvement of interfaces for mobile robots in military, service, and security applications.
Originality/value
The value of this research extends to optimizing remote control schemes to relieve operator fatigue and optimize interface design.
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Víctor H. Andaluz, Cristian M. Gallardo, Fernando A. Chicaiza, Christian P. Carvajal, José Morales, Giovanny Cuzco, Vicente Morales, Byron E. Vaca and Nicolay Samaniego
This paper aims to present a unified motion control scheme for quadcopters which not only solves the point stabilization and trajectory tracking problems but also the path…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a unified motion control scheme for quadcopters which not only solves the point stabilization and trajectory tracking problems but also the path following problem.
Design/methodology/approach
The control problem is solved based on the kinematic model of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Next, a dynamic compensation controller is considered through of a quadcopter-inner-loop system to independently track four velocity commands: forward, lateral, up/downward and heading rate. Stability and robustness of the whole control system are proved through the Lyapunov’s method. To evaluate the controller’s performance, a multi-user application which allows bilateral communication between a ground station and the Phantom 3 PRO quadrotor is developed.
Findings
The performance of the proposed unified controller is shown through real experiments for the different motion control objectives: point stabilization, trajectory tracking and path following. The experiments confirm the capability of the unified controller to solve different motion problems by an adequate selection of the control references.
Originality/value
This work proposes the design of three types of motion controllers, which can be switched to comply a task in outdoor. Based on the software development kit provided by the company DJI, an application to get and send data to the UAV is developed. By means of this application, the three tasks are tested and the robustness of the controllers is proved.
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Keywords
– The purpose of this paper is to present a two-loop approach for velocity control of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) under mechanical uncertainties.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a two-loop approach for velocity control of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) under mechanical uncertainties.
Design/methodology/approach
The inner loop calculates the two-axis stator reference voltages through a feedback linearization method. The outer loop employs an RST control structure to compute the q-axis stator reference current. To increase the robustness of the proposed method, the RST controller parameters are adapted through a fractional order model reference adaptive system (FO-MRAS). The fractional order gradient and Lyapunov methods are utilized as adaptation mechanisms.
Findings
The effect of the fractional order derivative in the load disturbance rejection, transient response speed and the robustness is verified through computer simulations. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method against the external torque and mechanical parameters uncertainties.
Originality/value
The proposed FO-MRAS based on Lyapunov adaptation mechanism is proposed for the first time. Moreover, application of the FO-MRAS for velocity control of PMSM is presented for the first time.
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Keywords
Xiaohui Xie, Cui Ma, Qiang Sun and Ruxu Du
Bar‐tacking is a specialized sewing stitch designed to provide immense tensile strength to the garment which requires a high‐speed precision bar‐tacking sewing machine. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Bar‐tacking is a specialized sewing stitch designed to provide immense tensile strength to the garment which requires a high‐speed precision bar‐tacking sewing machine. This paper aims to present an event‐driven multi‐axis cooperative control method for a bar‐tacking sewing machine.
Design/methodology/approach
The control method consists of two parts: the multi‐axis cooperative control and the needle stop positioning control. The challenges include the high speed and the precision. For example, the needle must stop at a set position in milliseconds.
Findings
The presented multi‐axis cooperative control can ensure the high speed response and the precision of the cooperative control. The needle stop positioning control is based on a combination of the velocity control and the position control with velocity feed‐forward and limitation.
Research limitations/implications
The bar‐tacking sewing machine requires high‐speed start and stop response and coordination of displacement and velocity only at some given points. Therefore, the conventional multi‐axis cooperative control methods are not suitable. In addition, it requires high‐speed precision control under varying loading conditions.
Practical implications
While there are a number of commercial textile machines available in the market, designing a smart bar‐tacking sewing machine with good speed and precision performance remains a challenge.
Originality/value
The bar‐tacking sewing machine requires highly accurate multi‐axes cooperative control. The presented event‐driven multi‐axis control method is effective. It has not only the required high accuracy but also the fast time response.
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Keywords
Haitao Ding, Wei Li, Nan Xu and Jianwei Zhang
This study aims to propose an enhanced eco-driving strategy based on reinforcement learning (RL) to alleviate the mileage anxiety of electric vehicles (EVs) in the connected…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose an enhanced eco-driving strategy based on reinforcement learning (RL) to alleviate the mileage anxiety of electric vehicles (EVs) in the connected environment.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, an enhanced eco-driving control strategy based on an advanced RL algorithm in hybrid action space (EEDC-HRL) is proposed for connected EVs. The EEDC-HRL simultaneously controls longitudinal velocity and lateral lane-changing maneuvers to achieve more potential eco-driving. Moreover, this study redesigns an all-purpose and efficient-training reward function with the aim to achieve energy-saving on the premise of ensuring other driving performance.
Findings
To illustrate the performance for the EEDC-HRL, the controlled EV was trained and tested in various traffic flow states. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique can effectively improve energy efficiency, without sacrificing travel efficiency, comfort, safety and lane-changing performance in different traffic flow states.
Originality/value
In light of the aforementioned discussion, the contributions of this paper are two-fold. An enhanced eco-driving strategy based an advanced RL algorithm in hybrid action space (EEDC-HRL) is proposed to jointly optimize longitudinal velocity and lateral lane-changing for connected EVs. A full-scale reward function consisting of multiple sub-rewards with a safety control constraint is redesigned to achieve eco-driving while ensuring other driving performance.
Details
Keywords
Rafael Bardera, Marina León-Calero and Joaquín de Nova-Trigueros
Aircraft carriers are essential for modern naval operations. Takeoff maneuver is critical because of the short runway distance. The ski-jump ramp is a system which increases the…
Abstract
Purpose
Aircraft carriers are essential for modern naval operations. Takeoff maneuver is critical because of the short runway distance. The ski-jump ramp is a system which increases the angle of attack of the aircraft, so an extra lift is obtained. Regarding the flow configuration over the ski-jump ramp at ahead wind conditions, the complex aerodynamic environment generated by the ramp configuration influences aircraft operations. This flow field is mainly characterized by a low velocity recirculation bubble that reduces aircraft performances. The purpose of this paper is to find a solution to reduce these adverse effects, by means of flow control devices, which opens a wide field of research.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents wind tunnel tests performed to study the flow configuration in the vicinity of the ski-jump ramp and the flow control devices effects. A 1:100 scaled ship model was built to develop experimental tests by using flow control devices fabricated by means of additive manufacturing. Particle image velocimetry technique was used to measure the velocity flow field and the turbulence intensity maps.
Findings
Interesting results were obtained when the angle between the intersection of the ski-jump ramp and the columnar vortex generator (CVG) is modified. The results showed a high reduction of the recirculation bubble generated over the flight deck.
Originality/value
CVG has presented encouraging results as a passive flow control device. A study of the variation of CVG geometrical parameters has been developed.
Details