Progress in Flight Dynamics, Guidance, Navigation, Control, Fault Detection, and Avionics Volume 6

Volume presentation

The book contains 46 selected, revised, and thoroughly edited papers addressing various issued of flight dynamics, guidance, navigation, control (GNC), fault detection, and avionics written by eminent international experts. These papers include critical analyses of previous studies and novel concepts, new theoretical and experimental results and findings as well as numerous references to archival publications worldwide. The book is organized in 7 Chapters: (1) Handling Qualities; (2) Navigation and Attitude Estimation; (3) Guidance and Control; (4) Fault Detection and Diagnosis; (5) Avionics; (6) Launchers Trajectory Optimization; and (7) Flexible Aircraft Control.

The volume was prepared as a reference for research scientists and practicing engineers, from academy and industry, in the field of flight dynamics, GNC, and avionics.

EUCASS: The Association

The European Conference for AeroSpace Sciences, EUCASS (www.eucass.eu) is a nonprofit international association established in Belgium. It was founded in July 2006 to stimulate the development of pure and applied aerospace sciences in Europe. The purposes of EUCASS are scientific, technical, and educational. The association focuses on forefront science and cutting-edge technologies. It is at the service of Academia, Industry, Agencies, and other decision makers, by fostering communication and cooperation among them in order to reduce the time to the market for innovations. The association helps young scientists to find internships outside their countries of origin and supplies information on mobility and job opportunities. Last, it promotes a much-needed dialog between researchers and the governing bodies of Europe.

The base of EUCASS is the European Continent, Russia included. Members from all other countries are welcome. Today, the association counts in excess of 500 members from over 30 different countries. It is a member of the International Astronautical Association (IAF) and is partnering with European disciplinary associations ECCOMAS, ERCOFTAC, EUROMECH, and EUROTURBO and with CEAS, the Council of European Aerospace Societies.

Among its notable activities, the EUCASS team has already organized four major first-ever conferences each attended by over 500 participants:

  • Moscow (July 2005) co-organized by ONERA and TsAGI with partial operational support from AAAF and the Russian Academy of Sciences;
  • Brussels (July 2007) co-organized by ULB and VKI;
  • Versailles (July 2009) organized by the ASTECH Cluster;
  • St. Petersburg (July 2011) jointly organized by N.N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and TORUS PRESS.

Each conference included several parallel symposia, such as System Integration; Flight Physics; Flight Dynamics, Guidance, Navigation, Control, and Avionics; Structures and Materials; and Propulsion Physics. In the organization of the above conferences, great attention was always paid to the facilitation of cross-fertilization between multidisciplinary activities and between applications of any given technology to space and to aeronautics.

EUCASS has also launched a series of high-level Aerospace Thematic Workshops dedicated to fundamental topics of promising potential for aerospace applications, like the one on "Fundamentals of Flow and Combustion Control by Plasmas." The first of these was held in May 2007 at Varenna, Italy; the second and third editions followed in October 2009 and April 2011 at Les Houches Physics School in France.

The association's mission is not limited to organizing its biennial conferences and workshops. One of its fundamental tasks is also to publish high quality monographs in the form of book series compiling the best scientific works presented. Since 2007, it has been partnering with TORUS PRESS for these proceedings; it also encourages authors to submit their regular articles to the well-established Journal of Aerospace Engineering Part G of SAGE Publications Ltd.

Editors

Charles Vallet is Vice-President, Director of the Flight Control Engineering Unit at EADS ASTRIUM Space Transportation. He leads system activities mainly dedicated to mission analysis, performance optimization, GNC, critical onboard software and embedded avionics for launchers, missiles, and space vehicles. He delivers teaching in Engineering Schools.

Daniel Choukroun is with the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. He serves as Associate Editor of the IEEE T-AES, and in the AIAA GNC Technical Committee.

Christian Philippe is with the European Space Agency. He leads research and technology activities on safe precision landing GNC and avionics systems.

Gary Balas is distinguished McKnight university professor at the University of Minnesota. He is Department Head of the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Department. He is President of MUSYN Inc., codeveloper of the Robust Control Matlab Toolbox, IEEE Fellow, and a Foreign Member of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering.

Alexander Nebylov is with the State University of Aerospace Instrumentation in St. Petersburg, Chairman of Aerospace Devices and Measuring Complexes Department, and Director of the International Institute for Advanced Aerospace Technologies. He is in the leadership of the IFAC Aerospace Technical Committee. He has the title of Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.

Olga Yanova is leading research scientist in the Division of Flight Dynamics and Control Systems in Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), Russia. She is assistant professor in Moscow Aviation Institute.

Preface

EUCASS addresses all topics of interest to aerospace, from research challenges to long-term programmes and administrative problems. It is organized in several permanent Technical Committees (TC). One of them is the Flight Dynamics, Guidance, Navigation, Control (GNC), and Avionics TC. Within the broad EUCASS framework, the specific purpose of the Flight Dynamics, GNC, and Avionics TC is to promote the technology, sciences, and arts of aerospace dynamics, GNC, and avionics and to help those engaged in these pursuits to develop their skills and those of their students and collaborators.

In order to contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and provide a convenient archival reference to the most significant accomplishments, this EUCASS book series on advances in aerospace sciences was started in 2007 on the occasion of the second EUCASS conference held in Brussels.

This sixth volume of the EUCASS book series on advances in aerospace sciences is dedicated to flight dynamics, GNC, and avionics, and includes some of the best papers presented at the 4th European Conference for Aerospace Sciences held in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 04-08, 2011. A collection of the papers accepted for presentation at the conference was selected by the volume editors and later successively edited by an international body of peer reviewers. The current book is the product of this long distillation process.

The volume includes 7 chapters covering traditional aspects in aerospace flight dynamics, GNC, and avionics, as well as innovative ones:

  • Chapter 1 Handling Qualities
  • Chapter 2 Navigation and Estimation
  • Chapter 3 Guidance and Control
  • Chapter 4 Fault Detection and Control
  • Chapter 5 Avionics
  • Chapter 6 Launchers Trajectory Optimization
  • Chapter 7 Flexible Aircraft Control

To easily identify and put in the right perspective the material of interest, the reader is invited to consult the brief introduction and paper summaries compiled at the start of each chapters.

Acknowledgments

It is our pleasure to thank for their valuable and patient support:

  • members of the Organizing Committee;
  • members of the International Advisory Committee; and
  • all conference participants including speakers, observers, and session chairs.

Special thanks are due to Martin Hromčík‚ and Ali Zolghadri for their precious contribution in coordinating invited sessions.

The present book would not have been possible without the support and careful work of the international college of reviewers purposely nominated for this task. The quality of any scientific book is largely due to the will of reviewers to share their expertise and knowledge with unknown colleague from all over the world.

Last but not least, special thanks are due to our sponsors without which the 2011 conference would not have taken place: International Science and Technology Center (ISTC); European Space Agency (ESA); Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA); Safran Group; Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES); Thalès; Ansys; CD-Adapco.

We sincerely wish that this joint international effort will help all readers to gain a better understanding of aerospace flight dynamics, guidance, navigation, control, and avionics, and to further widen the fascinating horizons of the aerospace world.