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A special issue of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). This special issue belongs to the section "Aircraft Actuators".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 18293

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ti Chen

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Guest Editor

College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Interests: dynamics modelling; cooperative control; drone systems; attitude control; on-orbit assembly; vibration control

Dr. Junjie Kang

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Guest Editor

Department of Earth and Space Science & Engineering, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Interests: dynamics and control of spacecraft; space tether; debris removal; vibration control; nonlinear control

Dr. Shidong Xu

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Guest Editor

College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Interests: space-tethered systems; on-orbit autonomous assembly; space robots; advanced control methods; aerospace systems

Dr. Shuo Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Interests: optimal estimation; multi-sensor fusion; mobile robot localization; attitude measurement; inertial navigation; star tracker

Dr. Dongdong Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Interests: mechanics of beams, plates and shells

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The dynamics and control of aerospace systems have attracted growing interest due to being a key problem in the development of aerospace vehicles, such as space stations, space telescopes and advanced aircraft. The purpose of dynamics is to study system behaviours using time and force, while the purpose of control is to develop the control effect with error feedback under various working conditions. Knowledge of aerospace systems is critical for the design of control systems. Newly designed aerospace systems raise novel challenges for the dynamics and control techniques. We invite investigators to contribute original research and review articles addressing dynamics modelling, the stability analysis and controller design of aerospace systems.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Control system design of aircraft and spacecraft;
System modelling, analysis and identification of aerospace systems;
System stability of aerospace vehicles;
Sensors and control actuators of aircraft, rockets and spacecraft;
Orbit and attitude dynamics and control;
Drone dynamics and control;
Experimental investigation of aerospace systems;
Novel sensors and actuators of aerospace vehicles.

Dr. Ti Chen
Dr. Junjie Kang
Dr. Shidong Xu
Dr. Shuo Zhang
Dr. Dongdong Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

system dynamics
system identification
control system design
stability analysis
dynamics and control
aerospace vehicles
experimental investigation

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2348 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cooperative Integrated Guidance and Control for Active Target Protection in Three-Player Conflict

by Xiaopeng Gong, Wanchun Chen and Zhongyuan Chen

Actuators 2024, 13(7), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13070245 - 28 Jun 2024

Viewed by 604

Abstract

This paper addresses the active target protection problem in a three-player (Target–Attacker–Defender, TAD) conflict by proposing a cooperative integrated guidance and control (IGC) strategy. Unlike previous studies that have designed guidance and control loops separately, this work establishes an IGC model by linearizing both the translational motion and the rotational motion of the vehicles, thereby generating actuator commands directly. This model integrates the kinematics and short-period dynamics, providing a more comprehensive and accurate representation of the vehicles’ characteristics. Based on the linearization and order reduction, differential game theory and the sweep method are employed to derive and analytically solve the Riccati differential equation, yielding an optimal control strategy with an explicit expression. The theoretical rigor of the proposed approach is ensured through a proof of optimality sufficiency. Furthermore, factors influencing the computational accuracy of the Riccati equation solution, including the singular values of the control matrix and condition numbers of the solution matrix, are analyzed. Taking into account the dynamic response and limitations of the actuators, numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed IGC strategy in intercepting the attacker and protecting the target compared to traditional separated guidance and control designs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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18 pages, 3983 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intelligent Reduced-Dimensional Scheme of Model Predictive Control for Aero-Engines

by Zhen Jiang, Xi Wang, Jiashuai Liu, Nannan Gu and Wei Liu

Actuators 2024, 13(4), 140; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13040140 - 10 Apr 2024

Viewed by 1139

Abstract

Model Predictive Control (MPC) has many advantages in controlling an aero-engine, such as handling actuator constraints, but the computational burden greatly obstructs its application. The current multiplex MPC can reduce computational complexity, but it will significantly decrease the control performance. To guarantee real-time performance and good control performance simultaneously, an intelligent reduced-dimensional scheme of MPC is proposed. The scheme includes a control variable selection algorithm and a control sequence coordination strategy. A constrained optimization problem with low computational complexity is first constructed by using only one control variable to define a reduced-dimensional control sequence. Therein, the control variable selection algorithm provides an intelligent mode to determine the control variable that has the best control effect at the current sampling instant. Furthermore, a coordination strategy is adopted in the reduced-dimensional control sequence to consider the interaction of control variables at different predicting instants. Finally, an intelligent reduced-dimensional MPC controller is designed and implemented on an aero-engine. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the intelligent reduced-dimensional scheme. Compared with the multiplex MPC, the intelligent reduced-dimensional MPC controller enhances the control quality significantly by 34.06%; compared with the standard MPC, the average time consumption is decreased by 64.72%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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19 pages, 9453 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Vibration Suppression of a Flexible Beam Structure Coupled with Liquid Sloshing via ADP Control Based on FBG Strain Measurement

by Chunyang Kong, Dangjun Zhao and Buge Liang

Actuators 2023, 12(12), 471; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12120471 - 17 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1434

Abstract

In this study, an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) control strategy based on the strain measurement of a fiber Bragg grating (FGB) sensor array is proposed for the vibration suppression of a complicated flexible-sloshing coupled system, which usually exists in aerospace engineering, such as launch vehicles with a large amount of liquid propellant as well as a flexible beam structure. To simplify the flexible-sloshing coupled dynamics model, the equivalent spring-mass-damper (SMD) model of liquid sloshing is employed, and a finite-element method (FEM) dynamic model for the beam structure coupled with the liquid sloshing is mathematically established. Then, a strain-based vibration dynamic model is derived by employing a transformation matrix based on the relationship between displacement and strain of the beam structure. To facilitate the design of a strain-based control, a tracking differentiator is designed to provide the strains’ derivative signals as partial states’ estimations. Feeding the system with the strain measurements and their derivatives’ estimations, an ADP controller with an action-dependent heuristic dynamic programming structure is proposed to suppress the vibration of the flexible-sloshing coupled system, and the corresponding Lyapunov stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically guaranteed. Numerical results show the proposed method can effectively suppress coupled vibration depending on limited strain measurements irrespective of external disturbances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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19 pages, 1351 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Sliding Mode Control-Based Guidance Law for a Two-Dimensional Orbit Transfer with Bounded Disturbances

by Marco Bassetto, Giovanni Mengali, Karim Abu Salem, Giuseppe Palaia and Alessandro A. Quarta

Actuators 2023, 12(12), 444; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12120444 - 29 Nov 2023

Viewed by 1302

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of a state-feedback guidance law, which is obtained through a classical sliding mode control approach, in a two-dimensional circle-to-circle orbit transfer of a spacecraft equipped with a continuous-thrust propulsion system. The paper shows that such an inherently robust control technique can be effectively used to obtain possible transfer trajectories even when the spacecraft equations of motion are affected by perturbations. The problem of the guidance law design is first addressed in the simplified case of an unperturbed system, where it is shown how the state-feedback control may be effectively used to obtain simple mathematical relationships and graphs that allow the designer to determine possible transfer trajectories that depend on a few control parameters. It is also shown that a suitable combination of the controller parameters may be exploited to obtain trade-off solutions between the flight time and the transfer velocity change. The simplified control strategy is then used to investigate a typical heliocentric orbit raising/lowering in the presence of bounded disturbances and measurement errors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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23 pages, 21774 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Active Vibration Control Using Loudspeaker-Based Inertial Actuator with Integrated Piezoelectric Sensor

by Minghao Chen, Qibo Mao, Lihua Peng and Qi Li

Actuators 2023, 12(10), 390; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12100390 - 17 Oct 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1856

Abstract

With the evolution of the aerospace industry, structures have become larger and more complex. These structures exhibit significant characteristics such as extensive flexibility, low natural frequencies, numerous modes, and minimal structural damping. Without implementing vibration control measures, the risk of premature structural fatigue failure becomes imminent. In present times, the installation of inertial actuators and control signal acquisition units typically requires independent setups, which can be cumbersome for practical engineering purposes. To address this issue, this study introduces a novel approach: an independent control unit combining a loudspeaker-based inertial actuator (LBIA) with an integrated piezoelectric ceramic sensor. This unit enables autonomous vibration control, offering the advantages of ease of use, low cost, and lightweight construction. Experimental verification was performed to assess the mechanical properties of the LBIA. Additionally, a mathematical model for the LBIA with an integrated piezoelectric ceramic sensor was developed, and its efficacy as a control unit for thin plate structure vibration control was experimentally validated, showing close agreement with numerical results. Furthermore, the LBIA’s benefits as an actuator for low-frequency mode control were verified through experiments using external sensors. To further enhance control effectiveness, a mathematical model of the strain differential feedback controller based on multi-bandpass filtering velocity improvement was established and validated through experiments on the clamp–clamp thin plate structure. The experimental results demonstrate that the designed LBIA effectively reduces vibration in low-frequency bands, achieving vibration energy suppression of up to 12.3 dB and 23.6 dB for the first and second modes, respectively. Moreover, the LBIA completely suppresses the vibration of the fourth mode. Additionally, the improved control algorithm, employing bandpass filtering, enhances the effectiveness of the LBIA-integrated sensor, enabling accurate multimodal damping control of the structure’s vibrations for specified modes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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21 pages, 1937 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Linear Iterative Controller for Software Defined Control Systems of Aero-Engines Based on LMI

by Xiaoxiang Ji, Jiao Ren, Jianghong Li and Yafeng Wu

Actuators 2023, 12(7), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12070259 - 23 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1151

Abstract

Currently, most control systems of the aero-engines possess a central controller. The core tasks for the control system, such as control law calculations, are executed in this central controller, and its performance and reliability greatly impact the entire control system. This paper introduces a control system design named Software Defined Control Systems (SDCS), which features a controller-decentralized architecture. In SDCS, a network composed of a set of nodes serves as the controller, so there is no central controller in the system, and computations are distributed throughout the entire network. Since the controller is decentralized, there is a need for decentralized control tasks. To address this, this paper introduces a method for designing decentralized control tasks using periodic linear iteration. Each node in the network periodically broadcasts its own state and updates its next-step state as a weighted sum of its current state and the received current states of other nodes in the network. Each node in the network acts as a linear dynamic controller and maintains an internal state through information exchange with other nodes. We modeled the decentralized controller and obtained the model of the entire control system, and the workload of each obtained decentralized control task is balanced. Then, we obtained a parameter tuning method for each decentralized controller node based on Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI) to stabilize the closed-loop system. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified through digital simulation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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22 pages, 4545 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Robust Adaptive Composite Learning Integrated Guidance and Control for Skid-to-Turn Interceptors Subjected to Multiple Uncertainties and Constraints

by Yu Bai, Tian Yan, Wenxing Fu, Tong Li and Junhua Huang

Actuators 2023, 12(6), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12060243 - 11 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1367

Abstract

This paper investigates a novel robust adaptive dynamic surface control scheme based on the barrier Lyapunov function (BLF), online composite learning, disturbance observer, and improved saturation function. It is mainly designed for a class of skid-to-turn (STT) interceptor integrated guidance and control (IGC) design problems under multi-source uncertainties, state constraints, and input saturation. The serial-parallel estimation model used in this study estimates the system states and provides “critic” information for the neural network and disturbance observer; then, these three are combined to realize online composite learning of the multiple uncertainties of the system and improve the interception accuracy. In addition, the state and input constraints are resolved by adopting the BLF and the improved saturation function, while the design of the auxiliary system ensures stability. Finally, a series of simulation results show that the proposed IGC scheme with a direct-hit intercept strategy achieves a satisfactory effect, demonstrating the validity and robustness of the scheme. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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20 pages, 5718 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Multi-Scale Attention Mechanism Based Domain Adversarial Neural Network Strategy for Bearing Fault Diagnosis

by Quanling Zhang, Ningze Tang, Xing Fu, Hao Peng, Cuimei Bo and Cunsong Wang

Actuators 2023, 12(5), 188; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12050188 - 27 Apr 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1726

Abstract

There are a large number of bearings in aircraft engines that are subjected to extreme operating conditions, such as high temperature, high speed, and heavy load, and their fatigue, wear, and other failure problems seriously affect the reliability of the engine. The complex and variable bearing operating conditions can lead to differences in the distribution of data between the source and target operating conditions, as well as insufficient labels. To solve the above challenges, a multi-scale attention mechanism-based domain adversarial neural network strategy for bearing fault diagnosis (MADANN) is proposed and verified using Case Western Reserve University bearing data and PT500mini mechanical bearing data in this paper. First, a multi-scale feature extractor with an attention mechanism is proposed to extract more discriminative multi-scale features of the input signal. Subsequently, the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) is introduced to measure the difference between the distribution of the target domain and the source domain. Finally, the fault diagnosis process of the rolling is realized by minimizing the loss of the feature classifier, the loss of the MMD distance, and maximizing the loss of the domain discriminator. The verification results indicate that the proposed strategy has stronger learning ability and better diagnosis performance than shallow network, deep network, and commonly used domain adaptive models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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24 pages, 2159 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Decentralized LQR Output Feedback Control for Aero-Engines

by Xiaoxiang Ji, Jianghong Li, Jiao Ren and Yafeng Wu

Actuators 2023, 12(4), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12040164 - 6 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1758

Abstract

Aero-engine control systems generally adopt centralized or distributed control schemes, in which all or most of the tasks of the control system are mapped to a specific processor for processing. The performance and reliability of this processor have a significant impact on the control system. Based on the aero-engine distributed control system (DCS), we propose a decentralized controller scheme. The characteristic of this scheme is that a network composed of a group of nodes acts as the controller of the system, so that there is no core control processor in the system, and the computation is distributed throughout the entire network. An LQR output feedback control is constructed using system input and output, and the control tasks executed on each node in the decentralized controller are obtained. The constructed LQR output feedback is equivalent to the optimal LQR state feedback. The primal-dual principle is used to tune the parameters of each decentralized controller. The parameter tuning algorithm is simple to calculate, making it conducive for engineering applications. Finally, the proposed scheme was verified by simulation. The simulation results show that a high-precision feedback gain matrix can be obtained with a maximum of eight iterations. The parameter tuning algorithm proposed in this paper converges quickly during the calculation process, and the constructed output feedback scheme achieves equivalent performance to the state feedback scheme, demonstrating the effectiveness of the design scheme proposed in this paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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26 pages, 13811 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trajectory Tracking and Adaptive Fuzzy Vibration Control of Multilink Space Manipulators with Experimental Validation

by Chenlu Feng, Weidong Chen, Minqiang Shao and Shihao Ni

Actuators 2023, 12(4), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12040138 - 25 Mar 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1815

Abstract

This paper investigates the problem of modeling and controlling a space manipulator system with flexible joints and links. The dynamic model of the flexible manipulator system is derived by using the Lagrange equation and the floating frame of reference formulation, where the assumed mode method is adopted to discretize flexible links, while the flexible joints are regarded as linear torsion springs. The natural characteristics of a single flexible link manipulator, under three different boundary conditions, are compared to reveal the effect of the flexibility of joints on the manipulator system and to choose suitable assumed modes. Furthermore, singular perturbation theory is introduced to decompose the system into a slow subsystem that describes the rigid-body motion, and a fast subsystem that describes the elastic vibration. Since the system is underactuated, a compound control strategy, which consists of the underactuated computed torque controller and the adaptive fuzzy controller, is presented to improve the accuracy of the trajectory tracking of the flexible joints and to suppress the elastic vibration of the flexible links, in the meantime. Both numerical simulation and experimentation are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed compound controller, and a comparison with the proportional-derivative (PD) controller is provided to highlight its superiority in suppressing the residual vibration of the tip. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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14 pages, 4186 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach for the First-Stage Separation System of Launch Vehicle

by Wenfeng Zhang, Zhendong Liu, Xiong Liu, Yili Jin, Qixiao Wang and Rong Hong

Actuators 2022, 11(12), 366; https://doi.org/10.3390/act11120366 - 7 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2436

Abstract

This paper proposes a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) methodology to design a first-stage separation system for a launch vehicle. It focuses on the whole process of system modeling, such as modeling the requirements analysis, logical architecture design, physical architecture design, and system verification and validation. Finally, the component requirements are obtained as the baseline for the component design. Requirements analysis is carried out by identifying stakeholders with the cycle modeling for this system and the use of case modeling to ensure that the requirements are comprehensive and correct. Additionally, the standard system requirements are obtained and baselined. Based on system requirements, the trade-off analysis of hierarchical functional architecture and key indicators was mainly carried out to design the logical architecture. Once the logical architecture was decided, the logical architecture was allocated to the physical architecture to be implemented. Several physical architectures are analyzed hierarchically to seek the optimal architectures. Then, other CAE analysis tools were integrated to verify the physical architecture design. All these processes are modeled and integrated as the authority system model, which benefits the system engineer for managing the requirement changes easier and rapidly provides multi-views for different roles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Systems)

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