Browsing by Author "Dr. Charles Hall, Committee Member"

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    A Conservative Approach to Mounting and Applying an Omni-directional Vision System onto EvBot II Mobile Robot Platforms, for Use in Accurate Formation Control
    (2007-04-30) Burke, David Alexander; Dr. Edward Grant, Committee Chair; Dr. Alex Dean, Committee Member; Dr. Charles Hall, Committee Member; Dr. Mansoor Haider, Committee Member
    The research sensing capabilities of the EvBot II mobile robot platforms were increased and enhanced by the addition of the omni-directional camera. This, along with the associated machine vision capabilities maintained the conservative approach of the EvBot II philosophy, fiscal responsibility with computational optimality. The research increased the capabilities of the EvBot II platform by demonstrating that omni-directional vision processing could be performed relatively economically on a PC 104, while leaving as much processor time available as possible for running other programs.
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    Optimum Flap Angles for Roll Control on Wings with Multiple Trailing-Edge Flaps
    (2007-12-04) Segawa, Hidehiro; Dr. Agnes Szanto, Committee Member; Dr. Ashok Gopalarathnam, Committee Chair; Dr. Charles Hall, Committee Member
    This research effort explores the use of multiple trailing-edge flaps for efficiently generating rolling moment on aircraft. Using the concept of basic and additional lift distributions, the induced drag of the wing is expressed in terms of the flap angles. The theory of relative extrema is then used to determine the optimum flaps angles for minimum induced drag with a constraint on the rolling moment. By setting the mean of the flap angle for operation of the wing within the low-drag range, profile drag is also minimized. The general methodology can also be used on tailless aircraft and to study the effect of failure modes such as a stuck flap. The results show that multiple flaps can be used to generate rolling moments with lower drag than when ailerons are used. They also provide redundancy that helps efficiently handle control failures such as stuck flaps. The current research serves as a starting point for further investigation into the use of multiple flaps for efficient aircraft control.