NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scientific Systems Company, Inc.
500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000
Woburn, MA 01801 - 6562
(781) 933-5355

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jovan D Boskovic
Jovan.Boskovic@ssci.com
500 West Cummings Park Suite 3000
Woburn, MA 01801 - 6562
(781) 933-5355

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 2 to 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
SSCI proposes to develop and test a framework referred to as the ADVANCE (Algorithm Design and Validation for Adaptive Nonlinear Control Enhancement), within which we plan to perform a comparison study of the state-of-the-art adaptive flight control algorithms on two challenging testbeds: (i) a small tailsitter unmanned aerial vehicle that is characterized by highly uncertain nonlinear dynamics, and (ii) F/A-18 aircraft under wing damage. The results of this study should give rise to a set of recommendations and guidelines regarding the use, tuning and implementation of different advanced nonlinear adaptive control algorithms to problems in flight control in the presence of large modeling uncertainties. Based on this study, we also propose to develop the ADVANCE algorithms and techniques as the most suitable combination of those that represent the state-of-the-art in nonlinear adaptive flight control. This combination will focus on retaining the most favorable features of the existing algorithms, while minimizing their disadvantages and unfavorable interactions. Specific Phase I tasks will include: (i) Problem formulation; (ii) Testbed modeling and simulation development; (iii) Simulation testing of flight control algorithms; (iv) Performance evaluation & trade study. Phase II will include further enhancement and development of the proposed ADVANCE algorithms and comprehensive testing of methods of interest through pilot-in-the-loop simulations of F/A-18 aircraft, and flight testing of the tailsitter UAV. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Prof. Jonathan How) and Boeing Phantom Works (James Urnes, Sr.) will provide technical support under the project.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Design of effective adaptive flight control systems capable of accommodating highly nonlinear vehicle dynamics and large uncertainties is fundamental to the future advancement of aircraft development and design. For most aerospace applications nonlinear dynamics and uncertainty can either be inherent to the airframe design or induced from flight sustained upsets, damage and/or external hazards. Hence the proposed technique will find wide applications in flight control design for both commercial and military aerospace vehicles. In addition, effective adaptive control designs are directly applicable to GNC problems in space exploration.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Efficient adaptive control system designs are applicable to a wide variety of engineering systems including general Unmanned Systems (aerial, ground, surface, underwater), robotics, automotive industry, process control, and power systems.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Guidance, Navigation, and Control