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Potter, J. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Potter, J. E..

A prefiltering version of the Kalman filter with new numerical integration formulas for Riccati equations

A prefiltering version of the Kalman filter is derived for both discrete and continuous measurements. The derivation consists of determining a single discrete measurement that is equivalent to either a time segment of continuous measurements or a set of discrete measurements. This prefiltering version of the Kalman filter easily handles numerical problems associated with rapid transients and ill-conditioned Riccati matrices. Therefore, the derived technique for extrapolating the Riccati matrix from one time to the next constitutes a new set of integration formulas which alleviate ill-conditioning problems associated with continuous Riccati equations. Furthermore, since a time segment of continuous measurements is converted into a single discrete measurement, Potter's square root formulas can be used to update the state estimate and its error covariance matrix. Therefore, if having the state estimate and its error covariance matrix at discrete times is acceptable, the prefilter extends square root filtering with all its advantages, to continuous measurement problems.

Womble, M. E.

Digital flight control research

The results of studies which were undertaken to contribute to the design of digital flight control systems, particularly for transport aircraft are presented. In addition to the overall design considerations for a digital flight control system, the following topics are discussed in detail: (1) aircraft attitude reference system design, (2) the digital computer configuration, (3) the design of a typical digital autopilot for transport aircraft, and (4) a hybrid flight simulator.

Potter, J. E.

Minimax failure detection and identification in redundant gyro and accelerometer systems.

Minimax algorithms for failure detection and identification for redundant noncolinear arrays of single-degree-of-freedom gyros and accelerometers are described. These algorithms are optimum in the sense that detection occurs as soon as it is no longer possible to account for the instrument outputs as the outputs of good instruments operating within their noise tolerances, and identification occurs as soon as it is true that only a particular instrument failure could account for the actual instrument outputs within the noise tolerance of good instruments. An estimation algorithm is described which minimizes the maximum possible estimation error magnitude for the given set of instrument outputs. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented for the application of the algorithms to an inertial reference unit consisting of six gyros and six accelerometers in two alternate configurations.

Potter, J. E.

Gyro and accelerometer failure detection and identification in redundant sensor systems

Algorithms for failure detection and identification for redundant noncolinear arrays of single degree of freedom gyros and accelerometers are described. These algorithms are optimum in the sense that detection occurs as soon as it is no longer possible to account for the instrument outputs as the outputs of good instruments operating within their noise tolerances, and identification occurs as soon as it is true that only a particular instrument failure could account for the actual instrument outputs within the noise tolerance of good instruments. An estimation algorithm is described which minimizes the maximum possible estimation error magnitude for the given set of instrument outputs. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented for the application of the algorithms to an inertial reference unit consisting of six gyros and six accelerometers in two alternate configurations.

Potter, J. E.

Gyro and accelerometer failure detection and identification in redundant sensor systems.

An algorithm for failure detection and identification for redundant non-orthogonal arrays of single degree of freedom gyros and accelerometers is described which is optimum in the sense that detection occurs as soon as it is no longer possible to account for the instrument outputs as the outputs of good instruments operating within their noise tolerances, and identification occurs as soon as it is true that only a particular instrument failure could account for the actual instrument outputs within the noise tolerance of good instruments. An estimation algorithm is described which minimizes the maximum possible error magnitude for the given set of instrument outputs. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented for the application of the algorithms to an inertial reference unit consisting of six gyros and six accelerometers in two alternate configurations.

Potter, J. E.

Optimal filtering in the presence of unmodeled time correlated driving disturbances.

In many realistic data filtering problems, the cross correlation of the state estimation error and the state forcing function is unknown due to the poor knowledge of the time history of the forcing function. In this paper, the conservative and minimal approximation to the cross correlation terms is presented. It requires only the knowledge of the estimation error covariance and the forcing function covariance, with the choice of an associated free parameter left to the user. If the estimation error covariance and/or the forcing function covariance are bounded from above but not known exactly, the cross correlation approximation using those upper bounds remains conservative. This cross correlation approximation leads to a conservative approximation to the estimation error covariance matrix differential equation between measurement times. The free parameter is determined as the analytic solution to an associated optimal control problem. The procedure is expanded to include discrete linear measurement incorporation.

Fraser, D. C.

Method of statistical filtering

Minimal formula for bounding the cross correlation between a random forcing function and the state error when this correlation is unknown is used in optimal linear filter theory applications. Use of the bound results in overestimation of the estimation-error covariance.

Battin, R. H.

Matrix quadratic solutions.

Matrix quadratic equation solution derivation applied in finding steady state solutions of Riccati differential equations with constant coefficients

OPTIMAL CONTROL