Insight into the knowledge of Automatic Flight Control Systems gives an understanding of the basic problem of controlling the aircraft’s flight, and enhances its ability to assess the solutions to the problems which are generally proposed. There are a number of flight missions which require that an aircraft be made to follow, with great precision, some specially defined path. Whenever a convent...

We analyze the trajectory perturbations that result in phugoid oscillations during the grazing planetary entry of space vehicles starting with near-circular speed, in ballistic and equilibrium glide modes. The equations for planar entry are transformed into a dimensionless system appropriate for an analytical integration that provides accurate results in comparison with those obtained from a nu...

This paper demonstrates a real life approach for quadrotor obstacle avoidance in indoor flight. A color-based vision approach for obstacle detection is used to good effect conjointly with an adaptive path planning algorithm. The presented task is to move about a set indoor space while avoiding randomly located obstacles and adapting a path to prevent future confrontation with the obstacles all ...

There is a recognized need for automated path planning for unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and guided munitions. Evolutionary programming approaches provide an alternative to classical functional optimization methods with the capability of incorporating a variety of optimization goals, while tolerating vehicle constraints. In this work, we introduce an evolutionary flight path planning algorithm c...

To investigate changes in spatial orientation ability and walking performance following space flight, 7 astronaut subjects were asked preand post-flight to perform a goal directed locomotion paradigm which consisted of walking a triangular path with and without vision. This new paradigm, involving inputs from different sensory systems, allows quantification of several critical parameters, like ...