Engineering topics

Sesak, John R.

Publications and source records attributed to Sesak, John R..

2 records

NASA NTRS1994

CSI, optimal control, and accelerometers: Trials and tribulations

New results concerning optimal design with accelerometers are presented. These results show that the designer must be concerned with the stability properties of two Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) compensators, one of which does not explicitly appear in the closed-loop system dynamics. The new concepts of virtual and implemented compensators are introduced to cope with these subtleties. The virtual compensator appears in the closed-loop system dynamics and the implemented compensator appears in control electronics. The stability of one compensator does not guarantee the stability of the other. For strongly stable (robust) systems, both compensators should be stable. The presence of controlled and uncontrolled modes in the system results in two additional forms of the compensator with corresponding terms that are of like form, but opposite sign, making simultaneous stabilization of both the virtual and implemented compensator difficult. A new design algorithm termed sensor augmentation is developed that aids stabilization of these compensator forms by incorporating a static augmentation term associated with the uncontrolled modes in the design process.

Benjamin, Brian J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Coupled Riccati equations for complex plane constraint

A new Linear Quadratic Gaussian design method is presented which provides prescribed imaginary axis pole placement for optimal control and estimation systems. This procedure contributes another degree of design freedom to flexible spacecraft control. Current design methods which interject modal damping into the system tend to have little affect on modal frequencies, i.e., they predictably shift open plant poles horizontally in the complex plane to form the closed loop controller or estimator pole constellation, but make little provision for vertical (imaginary axis) pole shifts. Imaginary axis shifts which reduce the closed loop model frequencies (the bandwidths) are desirable since they reduce the sensitivity of the system to noise disturbances. The new method drives the closed loop modal frequencies to predictable (specified) levels, frequencies as low as zero rad/sec (real axis pole placement) can be achieved. The design procedure works through rotational and translational destabilizations of the plant, and a coupling of two independently solved algebraic Riccati equations through a structured state weighting matrix. Two new concepts, gain transference and Q equivalency, are introduced and their use shown.

Strong, Kristin M.↗