Project Title:

Robust Control Design by Q-Parameterization

92-1-09.02-5500                                                   NAS05-32447
Robust Control Design by Q-Parameterization
Swales & Association, Inc.
5050 Powder Mill Road
Beltsville, MD  20705
Nicholas G. Stamatakos                               (301-595-5500)

Abstract:

     As stability and performance specifications for controls
systems become more and more challenging, controls designers will
be forced to implement complex, multivariable control laws. This
trend has created the need to upgrade software tools, such as
interactive controls analysis (INCA), to incorporate these new
control methodologies as they are being developed and implemented
for aerospace and other engineering applications. Currently,
system or component transfer functions are entered to
mathematically model control systems in INCA. The new control
methodologies require that the system dynamics be modeled in
state-space form. The objective of this project will be to modify
INCA to accept input for a control system model in state-space
form, to convert transfer functions to state-space (and vice
versa), and to implement robust control laws first for SISO
(single input, single output) systems and then for MIMO (multi
input, multi output) systems in Phases II and III. Once developed
and tested, these additions to INCA will give the controls
engineer a tool for developing and implementing robust control
methodologies for control systems.

Potential Commercial Application:

Potential Commercial Applications:  The software developed will be
useful in government and commercial applications requiring
classical and/or modern design techniques (e.g., unmanned
spacecraft, payload pointing systems, instrument control systems,
aircraft, factory automation). The software will serve as a useful
learning tool for engineers and graduate controls students.

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