Impact point dispersion of a direct fire rocket can be drastically reduced with a ring of appropriately sized lateral pulse jets coupled to a trajectory tracking flight control system. The system is shown to work well against uncertainty in the form of initial off-axis angular velocity perturbations as well as...
Engineers have long been inspired by nature's flyers. Such animals navigate complex environments gracefully and efficiently by using a variety of evolutionary adaptations for high-performance flight. Biologists have discovered a variety of sensory adaptations that provide flow state feedback and allow flying animals to feel their way through flight. A...
We hypothesize that the extraordinary maneuverability and efficiency of bats in flight are in part due to the compliant nature of their wing structures. We utilize the parameters of bat bones measured by biologists to create a biologically inspired model of a flapping system consisting of a rotating hub actuator...
This thesis presents an adaptive model reference controller for a highly
maneuverable high performance aircraft, in particular, a modified F18. An adaptive
controller is developed to maneuver an aircraft at a high angle of attack. Thus, the
aircraft is required to fly over a highly nonlinear flight regime. The adaptive...