The use of machine vision to guide robotic spacecraft is being considered for a wide range of missions, such as planetary approach and landing, asteroid and small body sampling operations and in-orbit rendezvous and docking. Numerical simulation plays an essential role in the development and testing of such systems, which in the context of vision-guidance means that realistic sequences of navigation images are required, together with knowledge of the ground-truth camera motion. Computer generated imagery (CGI) offers a variety of benefits over real images, such as availability, cost, flexibility and knowledge of the ground truth camera motion to high precision. However, standard CGI methods developed for terrestrial applications lack the realism, fidelity and performance required for engineering simulations.

In this paper, we present the results of our ongoing work to develop a suitable CGI-based test environment for spacecraft vision guidance systems. We focus on the various issues involved with image simulation, including the selection of standard CGI techniques and the adaptations required for use in space applications. We also describe our approach to integration with high-fidelity end-to-end mission simulators, and summarise a variety of European Space Agency research and development projects that used our test environment.

A scale model of aerial refuelling drogue is built and tested to investigate active drogue stabilisation and control concepts. A set of aerodynamic control surfaces is implemented to a conventional, aerodynamically stabilised refuelling drogue. The control surfaces are designed to reduce the response of the drogue motion to atmospheric disturbance and tanker motion. This paper presents the details of design concept and experimental results based on wind-tunnel testing of a ⅓ scale model fabricated for this study. To investigate the proposed active control concept, a dynamic test rig is built for wind-tunnel experiment. The rig basically represents a hose-drogue system in terms of a 4 degree-of-freedom (DoF), single link pendulum model. System identification technique is used to obtain a drogue dynamic model, based on which a feedback control law is developed. Closed-loop dynamic testing is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the aerodynamic surface control module and feedback control law.

The short take-off capability is of paramount importance for a fighter airplane to enable its operation from short and damaged runways. This paper analyses the airplane take-off process from the viewpoint of reducing the ground roll/take-off distance with the use of thrust vectoring. The airplane take-off is modelled incorporating the ground reactions on the landing gear and the thrust vector forces and moments. The take-off problem is formulated as an optimal control problem with appropriate constraints. Though many researchers have applied optimal control techniques for designing airplane manoeuvres, its application to the airplane take-off problem is rarely available in the open literature. It is expedient to use such methodology to understand the use of thrust vectoring features of an aircraft to maximise the benefits in shortening the ground roll/take-off distance. An optimal control methodology has been applied in this paper with the objectives stated above to a twin-engine fighter nonlinear aircraft model popularly known as F-18/HARV. Computation of flight path and control schedules using optimal control has been carried out with and without the use of vector nozzles. A reduction of about 6% in take-off distance and about 29% in ground roll distance is obtained with the use of thrust vector for the configuration studied.

Conventional commercial aircraft fuselages use all-aluminium semi-monocoque structures where the skin carries the external loads, the internal fuselage pressurisation and is strengthen using frames and stringers. Environmental and economic issues force aircraft designers to minimise weight and costs to keep air transport competitive and safe. But as metal designs have reached a high degree of perfection, extraordinary weight and cost savings are unlikely in the future. Carbon composite materials combined with lattice structures and the use of topology optimisation have the potential to offer such weight reductions. The EU FP7 project Advanced Lattice Structures for Composite Airframes (ALaSCA) was started to investigate this. This article present some of this research which has now led to the development of a new airframe concept which consists of: a load carrying inner skin; transverse frames; CFRP-metal hybrid stiffeners helically arranged in a grid configuration; insulating foam and an additional aerodynamic outer skin.

An experimental investigation is presented to validate endurance estimates for a battery powered flight vehicle. In this study a radio controlled model aircraft was ‘flown’ inside a wind tunnel. Various Lithium Ion batteries were used to power the model. Battery electrical characteristics were recorded during each run to assess battery discharge behaviour. Theoretical estimates based upon battery characteristics yielded endurance estimates within 3% of that measured experimentally. The discharge characteristics of the batteries were found to be the largest source of uncertainty for endurance estimates.

This note assesses the benefits of active aeroelastic structures (AAS) in enhancing flight performance and control authority. A representative AAS concept, whose torsional stiffness and shear centre position can be altered depending on the instantaneous flight condition, is employed in the wing of a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV. A multidisciplinary design optimisation (MDO) suite is used in this study. It turns out that AAS can be very effective when used for enhancing control authority of the vehicle but have limited benefits in terms of flight performance (lift to drag).