Technical Seminar
Friday, January 25, 12:00noon-1:00pm
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, Palo Alto
Most real-world control problems are nonlinear. Control system development for these problems have traditionally been based on Taylor series linearized system dynamics in conjunction with the application of linear control techniques. Since the system dynamics will behave differently in different parts of the state space, several controllers will have to be designed and “scheduled” with respect to the operating conditions to yield acceptable control system performance. In many situations, coming up with a satisfactory controller schedule can consume far more human resources than the linearization-linear system design tasks. Moreover, the stability of the resulting system cannot be guaranteed.
Over the past two decades, several nonlinear control system design methods have emerged in the literature. Some of these methods have reached sufficient levels of maturity to permit their application in practical problems. Nonlinear control methods can directly use the give system dynamics to develop controllers. No linearization or gain scheduling is involved in their implementation. These aspects free up the designer to focus on the control system design aspects of the problem, enabling the development of high-performance controllers.
This presentation will discuss practical nonlinear control methodologies, and will present the development of computational tools that enable transparent implementation of these methods. Realistic illustrative examples will be presented.
Dr. P. K. Menon has been involved in the development of nonlinear control systems for aircraft, rotorcraft, missiles, launch vehicles, spacecraft, medical devices and robots. He has received continuous research support in these areas from the NASA, Navy, Air Force, Army and the aerospace industry. He has published extensively in professional journals and has presented papers at various national and international conferences.
Dr. Menon currently serves as the president and chief scientist at Optimal Synthesis Inc. His experience includes 16 years as a research scientist in the aerospace industry, 8 years at universities as a faculty member and 3 years with NASA as a visiting scientist. He has taught advanced courses in Control, Flight Vehicle Dynamics, Guidance and Control, Machine Vision, and Digital Signal Processing. He has directed Ph. D dissertations and numerous graduate Projects.
Dr. Menon is a member of the IEEE, AHS, Sigma Gamma Tau, and is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA. He is the recipient of research awards from NASA, AIAA and the IEEE. He is a reviewer for over 10 archival journals on automatic control and signal processing, and has served as an Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics. He is currently an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.
January 25, 2002 (Friday); 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm
This program is open to AIAA members.
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space
Advanced Technology Center
3251 Hanover Street
B/202 Auditorium
Palo Alto, California
If you plan to attend this seminar, please send email to Larry Chien at: larry.chien@lmco.com. Please include your name, e-mail address, and a day-time telephone.