Search Results (9)

Quad-tilt-wing (QTW) Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) combine the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of rotary-wing designs with the high-speed, long-range performance of fixed-wing aircraft, offering significant advantages in both civil and military applications. The unique configuration of QTW UAVs presents complex control challenges due to nonlinear dynamics, strong coupling between translational and rotational motions, and significant variations in aerodynamic characteristics during transitions between flight modes. To address these challenges, this study develops an optimal control framework tailored for real-time operations. A State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) approach is employed for attitude control, addressing nonlinearities, while a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is used for position and velocity control to achieve robustness and optimal performance. By integrating these strategies and utilizing the inverse dynamics approach, the proposed control system ensures stable and efficient operation. This work provides a solution to the optimal control complexities of QTW UAVs, advancing their applicability in demanding and dynamic operational environments. Full article

This paper introduces a nonlinear Lyapunov-based Finite-Time State-Dependent Differential Riccati Equation (FT-SDDRE) control scheme, considering actuator saturation constraints and ensuring that the control system operates within safe operational limits designed for satellite reconfiguration and formation-keeping in low Earth orbit (LEO) missions. This control approach addresses the challenges of reaching the relative position and velocity vectors within a defined timeframe amid various orbital perturbations. The proposed approach guarantees precise formation control by utilizing a high-fidelity relative motion model that incorporates all zonal harmonics and atmospheric drag, which are the primary environmental disturbances in LEO. Additionally, the article presents an optimization methodology to determine the most efficient State-Dependent Coefficient (SDC) form regarding fuel consumption. This optimization process minimizes energy usage through a hybrid genetic algorithm and simulated annealing (HGASA), resulting in improved performance. In addition, this paper includes a sensitivity analysis to identify the optimized SDC parameterization for different satellite reconfiguration maneuvers. These maneuvers encompass radial, along-track, and cross-track adjustments, each with varying baseline distances. The analysis provides insights into how different parameterizations affect reconfiguration performance, ensuring precise and efficient control for each type of maneuver. The finite-time controller proposed here is benchmarked against other forms of SDRE controllers, showing reduced error margins. To further assess the control system’s effectiveness, an input saturation constraint is integrated, ensuring that the control system operates within safe operational limits, ultimately leading to the successful execution of the mission. Full article

In this work, we analyze the suitability of the State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) suboptimal nonlinear control formulation for the implementation of body-fixed hovering of a spacecraft in the highly nonlinear environment engendered by the faint force fields around single- and multi-body Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), a class of Small Solar System Bodies with high relevance either in scientific, economic, or planetary defense-related aspects. Our results, addressing the hovering of a spacecraft around relative equilibrium points on the effective potential of the Near-Earth Asteroid (16) Psyche and of the much smaller main body (called Alpha) of the triple NEA system (153591) 2001SN263, show that the known effectiveness offered by the flexibility engendered by state-dependent factorization of nonlinear models is also effective when applied in these faint and highly nonlinear force fields. In fact, this work is a qualitative evaluation of the suitability of using SDRE in the highly disturbed environment around Small Solar System Bodies, which has never been undertaken before. We intend to prove that this method is adequate. For real missions, it is necessary to make deeper studies. In particular, our results show the flexibility granted by the SDRE approach in the trade off between maneuvering time against fuel consumption, a central aspect in such space missions. For instance, our simulations showed control effort and time of convergence for two controlled trajectories around (16) Psyche ranging from a half-time convergence with ∼20 times lower cost. Analogously, for the much smaller bodies in the (153591) 2001SN263 triple system, we got two trajectories in which one of them may converge ∼10 times faster but with up to ∼100 times higher cost. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cancer is a dynamic and complex disease that remains largely untreated despite major advances in oncology and treatment. In this context, we aimed here to investigate optimal control techniques in the management of tumor growth inhibition, with a particular focus on cancer chemotherapy treatment strategies. Methods: Using both linear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (ARX) and advanced non-linear tumor growth inhibition (TGI) modeling approaches, we investigated various single-agent treatment protocols, including continuous, periodic, and intermittent chemotherapy schedules. By integrating advanced mathematical modeling with optimal control theory and methods, namely the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and the “pseudo-linear” state-space equivalent representation and suboptimal control of a non-linear dynamic system known as the State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) approach, this work explores and evaluates successfully, more effective chemotherapy treatment strategies at the computer simulation level, using real preclinical data which increases the expectation to be applied in the clinical practice of oncology. Results: The integration of these methods provides insights into how different drug administration schedules may affect tumor response at the preclinical level. This work uses mathematical modeling to evaluate the efficacy of various periodic and intermittent chemotherapy treatment strategies, with a focus on optimizing drug doses while minimizing the potential side effects of chemotherapy due to the administration of less effective chemotherapeutic doses. Conclusions: The treatment scenarios tested in this study could effectively stop tumor growth or even lead to tumor regression to a negligible or near-zero size. This approach highlights the importance of computational tools for more effective treatment strategies in chemotherapy and offers a promising direction for future research and more efficient clinical applications in oncology as part of a more individualized approach. Full article

In the field of RNA therapy, innovative approaches based on adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADAR)-mediated site-directed RNA editing (SDRE) have been established, providing an exciting opportunity for RNA therapeutics. ADAR1 and ADAR2 enzymes are accountable for the predominant form of RNA editing in humans, which involves the hydrolytic deamination of adenosine (A) to inosine (I). This inosine is subsequently interpreted as guanosine (G) by the translational and splicing machinery because of their structural similarity. Intriguingly, the novel SDRE system leverages this recoding ability of ADAR proteins to correct the pathogenic G to A nucleotide mutations through a short, engineered guide RNA (gRNA). Thus, ADAR-mediated SDRE is emerging as a powerful tool to manipulate the genetic information at the RNA level and correct disease-causing mutations without causing damage to the genome. Further it is emerging as a new instrument for personalized medicine, since treatments can be tailored to the unique genetic mutations present in an individual patient. In this short review, we aimed to described the main approached bases on ADARs activity, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Full article

Deep space missions, and particularly cislunar endeavors, are becoming a major field of interest for the space industry, including for the astrodynamics research community. While near-Earth missions may be completely covered by perturbed Keplerian dynamics, deep space missions require a different modeling approach, where multi-body gravitational interactions play a major role. To this end, the Restricted Three-Body Problem stands out as an insightful first modeling strategy for early mission design purposes, retaining major dynamical transport structures while still being relatively simple. Dynamical Systems Theory and classical Hamiltonian Mechanics have proven themselves as remarkable tools to analyze deep-space missions within this context, with applications ranging from ballistic capture trajectory design to stationkeeping. In this work, based on this premise, a Hamiltonian derivation of the Restricted Three-Body Problem co-orbital dynamics between two spacecraft is introduced in detail. Thanks to the analytical and numerical models derived, connections between the relative and classical Keplerian and CR3BP problems are shown to exist, including first-order linear solutions and an inherited Hamiltonian normal form. The analytical linear and higher-order models derived allow the theoretical finding and unveiling of natural co-orbital phase space structures, including relative periodic and quasi-periodic orbital families, which are further exploited for general proximity operation applications. In particular, a novel reduced-order, optimal low-thrust stationkeeping controller is derived in the relative Floquet phase space, hybridizing the classical State Dependent Ricatti Equation (SDRE) with Koopman control techniques for efficient unstable manifold regulation. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated and validated within several end-to-end low-cost stationkeeping missions, and comparison against classical continuous stationkeeping algorithms presented in the literature is also addressed to reveal its enhanced performance. Finally, conclusions and open lines of research are discussed. Full article

In this paper, a planar air-bearing test bed with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) was used to test a microsatellite motion control system. The UAV mock-ups were controlled by four ventilator actuators that imitated the satellite thrusters and provided the required acceleration vector in the horizontal plane, and torque along the vertical direction. The mock-ups moved almost without friction along the planar air-bearing test bed due to the air cushion between the test bed surface and the flat mock-up base. The motion of the mock-ups motion imitated the motion of satellites in the orbital plane. The problem of space debris can be solved using special microsatellite missions able to dock to space debris objects and change their orbit. In this paper, two control algorithms based on the virtual potentials approach and the State Dependent Ricatti Equation (SDRE) controller, were proposed for docking to a non-cooperative space debris object. The algorithms were tested in a laboratory facility, and the results are presented and analyzed, including their main features demonstrated during the laboratory study. It was shown that the SDRE-based control was faster, although the virtual potential-based control required less characteristic velocity. Full article

For a class of discrete weakly nonlinear state-dependent coefficient (SDC) control systems, a suboptimal synthesis is constructed over a finite interval with a large number of steps. A one-point matrix Padé approximation (PA) of the solution of the initial problem for the discrete matrix Riccati equation is constructed based on the state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) approach and the asymptotics by the small-step of the boundary layer functions method. The symmetric gain coefficients matrix for Padé control synthesis is constructed based on the one-point PA. As a result, the parametric closed-loop control is obtained. The results of numerical experiments illustrate, in particular, the improved extrapolation properties of the constructed regulator, which makes the algorithm applicable in control systems for a wider range of parameter variation. Full article

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most notorious Gram-positive bacteria with a very high mortality rate. The WHO has listed S. aureus as one of the ESKAPE pathogens requiring urgent research and development efforts to fight against it. Yet there is a major layback in the advancement of effective vaccines against this multidrug-resistant pathogen. SdrD and SdrE proteins are attractive immunogen candidates as they are conserved among all the strains and contribute specifically to bacterial adherence to the host cells. Furthermore, these proteins are predicted to be highly antigenic and essential for pathogen survival. Therefore, in this study, using the immunoinformatics approach, a novel vaccine candidate was constructed using highly immunogenic conserved T-cell and B-cell epitopes along with specific linkers, adjuvants, and consequently modeled for docking with human Toll-like receptor 2. Additionally, physicochemical properties, secondary structure, disulphide engineering, and population coverage analysis were also analyzed for the vaccine. The constructed vaccine showed good results of worldwide population coverage and a promising immune response. For evaluation of the stability of the vaccine-TLR-2 docked complex, a molecular dynamics simulation was performed. The constructed vaccine was subjected to in silico immune simulations by C-ImmSim and Immune simulation significantly provided high levels of immunoglobulins, T-helper cells, T-cytotoxic cells, and INF-γ. Lastly, upon cloning, the vaccine protein was reverse transcribed into a DNA sequence and cloned into a pET28a (+) vector to ensure translational potency and microbial expression. The overall results of the study showed that the designed novel chimeric vaccine can simultaneously elicit humoral and cell-mediated immune responses and is a reliable construct for subsequent in vivo and in vitro studies against the pathogen. Full article