71-80 of 81 results

  • A Biologically Inspired Architecture Screening Tool to Improve Electric Grid Transient Response Design

    PI Bryan Watson

    The objective of this research is to develop and validate a new approach to design-for-transient resilience that provides additional insights, is less expensive, and can be used early in the design process.



    Electrical distribution needs to protect society by providing reliable power, even under changing conditions. The current approach to design electrical distribution grids often focuses on steady state design requirements or response to a subset of potential faults. Even small and gradual changes in loading, however, can cause voltage transients and lead to major blackouts due to voltage collapse. As electric demand increases and infrastructure operates near its design limits, these events are likely to become more common. While designers can examine slowly changing load transients, this occurs after creating a model of the proposed grid, which can be costly. Thus, this research examines the following gap: A cost-effective approach is needed early in the electrical distribution design process to screen candidate architectures for their expected response to slowly changing operating conditions. 

    There is an opportunity to examine unexpected voltage collapse through the lens of ecosystem critical transitions. Critical transitions occur when an ecosystem shifts suddenly from one stable configuration (e.g. forest) to another (e.g. grassland) due to slowly changing environmental conditions (e.g. annual rainfall). The mathematical framework established to evaluate and classify critical transitions has been well studied but has not been used to design electrical distribution. The central hypothesis examined in this proposal is If we screen initial electrical distribution architectures with graph theory (Ecological Network Analysis), then the resulting designs will have improved critical transition performance over non-screened architectures. Critical transition performance has two aspects: 

    1.superior ability to absorb additional loading before voltage collapse (i.e. margin to critical transition), and 

    2. transition to desirable, stable secondary configurations following voltage collapse, rather than cascading throughout the system and causing a complete blackout (i.e. type of Bifurcation).

    The objective of this research is to develop and validate a new approach to design-for-transient resilience that provides additional insights, is less expensive, and can be used early in the design process.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Creating Connections: Bed bugs to UAV Swarms

    PI Bryan Watson

    ​The overarching goal of our research is to advance our understanding of bed bug behavior and use this understanding to improve performance of aerospace swarms.

    Modern aerospace systems need a new approach for swarm consensus that is distributed, operates with local knowledge, and uses simple agents. The overarching goal of our research is to advance our understanding of bed bug behavior and use this understanding to improve performance of aerospace swarms. The first step is to understand individual bed bug response to stimuli (CO2, heat, light) and individual neural characteristics, before considering group dynamics. The objective of this research was to establish a collaboration between biologists and engineers at ERAU to design and implement a test-platform to enable new data collection for bed bug movement. This collaboration begins by examining individual bed bug response to CO2 concentration. Our central hypothesis is that if we record bed bug response to CO­2 exposure, then we will be able to improve our understanding of collective decision making because the bed bugs coordinate their response to environmental conditions. The research involved five undergraduate students from three campuses.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Learning from Zombie Ants to Increase UAV Swarm Resilience to Faulted Agents

    PI Bryan Watson

    This proposal examines the issue of faulted-agent mitigation through the lens of Biologically Inspired Design.

    Modern aerospace systems often approach problems by connecting many smaller agents, rather than using a single, more expensive platform. For example, it is often advantageous to have a fleet of lower-cost UAVs searching an area than a single, highly capable platform (airship). These sophisticated networks, however, are vulnerable to cascading faults.  For example, errors in data from a single UAV could lead the entire search party away from their intended target. Although recognized as a vulnerability for multi-agent systems, current fault-mitigation methods have significant limitations. Centralized monitoring methods are too computationally expensive and do not work well at large scale, while solutions that rely on agents reporting their own failures may not work in situations where the units are under attack or experiencing certain types of faults (e.g. communication failures). Additionally, current approaches often have strict assumptions that may not apply in real-world systems. As a result, large-scale aerospace systems are at risk of individual agent failures that can spread throughout the entire network, causing problems with system operation, and putting personnel in danger. This proposal examines the issue of faulted-agent mitigation through the lens of Biologically Inspired Design. The objective of this research is to investigate and evaluate a new biologically inspired approach to increase multi-agent system resilience. The Ophiocordyceps camponoti-rufipedis (OCR) or Zombie Ant Fungus provides an example of fault resilience in nature. The fungus infects the ant's nervous system and alters their behavior, ultimately leading to death. However, ant colonies have developed a unique foraging and organizational structure that contains the spread of the fungus. The central hypothesis is that an examination of colony response to OCR will allow derivation of information sharing protocols to increase multi-agent system resilience to fault propagation.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Navigation and Control for Autonomous Vessels

    PI Darris White

    PI Eric Coyle

    PI Patrick Currier

    Development of closed-form solution for control of over-actuated maritime systems.

    A method for controlling the position, orientation and velocity of a marine vessel in a body of water with multiple, independently steered propulsion devices. The method involves receiving a command to move to a specific position and orientation. Utilizing position/heading feedback control, a control algorithm is used to calculate the required forces and moments to move the vehicle. Steering angles and thrust forces are determined for each of the vessel's propulsion devices. The thrust and angular displacement limits of each device are used to determine if the required forces and moments are achievable using one of three modes of operation: parallel steer, counter steer and combined parallel/counter steer. The approach fully utilizes the solution workspace for the over-actuated system without requiring the use of an optimization. The approach is used for smooth autonomous navigation in scenarios that include station keeping, path following, transitional states, disturbance rejection and object avoidance.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Intelligent signal processing for secure mobile wireless communications with spectrum and energy efficiency

    PI Thomas Yang

    In modern wireless communications, scenarios often arise in which the receiver is required to perform detection of multi-user transmissions on the same channel or suppress co-channel interferers. In these scenarios, signal separation techniques based on statistical properties can be highly effective.

    In modern wireless communications, scenarios often arise in which the receiver is required to perform detection of multi-user transmissions on the same channel or suppress co-channel interferers. In these scenarios, signal separation techniques based on statistical properties can be highly effective. However, for wireless systems operating in highly dynamic environments (such as mobile and vehicular communications), the rapidly time-varying channel condition remains a major challenge for block-based signal processing, in which the estimation of statistical properties is performed through averaging over a block of data samples. When the channel parameters change with time, long blocks mean substantial variation of mixing matrices within each block, which inevitably degrades the source separation performance. On the other hand, short blocks render the estimation of signals’ statistical properties inaccurate and biased, thus resulting in poor estimation performance.

    We addresses the above-mentioned challenge via the adoption of signal separation algorithms specifically designed for dynamic channel conditions, and artificial data injection applied to short processing data blocks in wireless receivers. Through theoretical and simulation studies, we concluded that the data injection method has great potential in improving signal detection accuracy and/or processing speed for multi-user detection in wireless receivers under dynamic channel conditions. The physical layer security of these mobile communication systems is also being addressed. The research is supported by Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate (AFRL/RI).

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Langrangian Wind Tunnel

    ERAU is supporting industry (i.e. Global Aerospace Corp.) in the development of a novel hypersonic wind tunnel by using high-fidelity computational fluid dynamcs.

    GAC is leading development of a wind tunnel in which the test article is propelled thru the test section at hypersonic speeds using a novel, proprietary approach.  Due to proprietary restrictions a simplistic version of the test article is illustrated below as it moves Mach 10 from right to left.  Shock waves may be observed reflecting off tunnel walls.  A Phase I Air Force STTR effort has been completed and Phase II is expected to begin in the near future.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • ACTIVE CONTROL OF SUPERSONIC JET NOISE VIA BI-MODAL EXCITATION



    Jet noise is a major problem for both military and commercial aircraft, and there is a lot of interest in ways to reduce it.  In this research project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, the objective is to implement active control in rectangular jets to reduce the noise.  This is to be done by exciting the jet at a fundamental frequency as well as either a harmonic or subharmonic frequency.  The amplitudes of the excitation are small, thus there should be minimal impact of excitation on aircraft performance.  In doing this, we can manipulate the large-scale structures in the jet, which is the dominant noise source.  The working principle here is that energy from the fundamental mode is transferred to the subharmonic or harmonic, which results in a reduction of the peak noise. 

    In order to compute the noise sources, High-Fidelity Large Eddy Simulations (LES) is done by modifying a code originally developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, which uses high-order numerical schemes.  However, LES is very computationally expensive and can take weeks to obtain results when running on a supercomputer.  Choosing the wrong excitation parameters can result in zero noise reduction or even enhancement of the noise.  To predict optimal excitation parameters, a Reduced-Order Model (ROM) has been derived to predict the propagation of noise sources in a jet.  Inputs to the ROM can come from linear methods such as Linear Stability Analysis or the Linearized Euler Equations.  Once the ROM is set up, a set of nonlinear differential equations can be solved numerically.  By comparison, this takes only a matter of seconds and does not require the use of a supercomputing cluster.  Using these results, we can observe the damping effect on the dominant noise source, and optimal excitation parameters can be chosen as inputs into LES.

    Current work is focused on performing LES on a Mach 1.5 planar jet, which approximates the flow in the minor plane of a rectangular jet.  This is being done to validate open-loop control using results from the ROM.  Both the symmetric and asymmetric modes will be studied.  Future work will involve performing LES on a Three-dimensional rectangular jet, which will be more representative of a real jet.  Here, closed-loop control can also be implemented.  By measuring the noise signal near the exit of the jet, parameters can be inputted to the ROM to give optimal excitation parameters thereby maximizing the noise reduction.


    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Predictive Analytics for Unmanned Aerial Systems Deployment

    ​This research covers unmanned systems deployment in uncertain adversarial environments. Resilient logistics operations call for a holistic and crosscutting approach to proactively address both real-time and persistent adversarial events in several operational areas to outfit mobility platforms, networks, and C2 digital twin to support continued uninterrupted operations.

    This research covers unmanned systems deployment in uncertain adversarial environments. Resilient logistics operations call for a holistic and crosscutting approach to proactively address both real-time and persistent adversarial events in several operational areas to outfit mobility platforms, networks, and C2 digital twin to support continued uninterrupted operations. The research proposes the development of robust mobility platforms for UAV deployment and remote maintenance in adversarial environments with predictive logistics guarantees, including platform reliability evaluation, and remote inspection.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Pilot Response to Cybersecurity Events

    ​The first research uses the pilot cybersecurity event and risk assessment station located in the Cybersecurity Engineering Lab (LB 131).

    The first research uses the pilot cybersecurity event and risk assessment station located in the Cybersecurity Engineering Lab (LB 131). The station includes a Force Dynamics 401CR flight simulator and a digital twin for scenario development and analysis, and it allows for human systems research on aircraft crew response to external stimuli. The research results are intended to be used to build a training module for aircraft pilots.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Design Verification of Airborne AI/ML Systems

    ​The verification process of safety-critical systems must ensure system design performs all intended functionality within the required output ranges and safety limits. It must also ensure that no intended functionality is present having a risk larger than the stated development assurance level.

    The verification process of safety-critical systems must ensure system design performs all intended functionality within the required output ranges and safety limits. It must also ensure that no intended functionality is present having a risk larger than the stated development assurance level. The objective of the AI/ML-based system is to assist with the detection of unintended behavior during operations that results in enhanced online hazard analysis and risk mitigation. Validation and verification techniques must be developed for these systems with the future goal of adopting them in airborne operations.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

71-80 of 81 results