Browsing by Author "Dr. Larry Silverberg, Committee Chair"
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- Advancement of Online Systems in Engineering by Expert TA(2006-09-04) Morton, Jeremy Andrew; Dr. Thomas Honeycutt, Committee Member; Dr. Kevin Lyons, Committee Member; Dr. Larry Silverberg, Committee Chair; Dr. Eric Klang, Committee MemberThis dissertation introduces a new online system called Expert TA. The system was developed based on the hypothesis that expressions are key elements in engineering problems and that the treatment of expressions is critical to the advancement of online systems. This dissertation identifies ergonomic problems with expression entry that Expert TA overcomes through the use of a problem-customize integrated expression editor, called a palate. Then the dissertation shows, using an expression analyzer that operates in the background of Expert TA, that specific mathematical mistakes within an entered expression can now be located. Emulating standard instructional practices, detailed feedback pertaining to specific mistakes and grading on the basis of specific mistakes is now possible.
- Decentralized Autonomous Control of Aerospace Vehicle Formations(2003-06-05) Levedahl, Blaine Alexander; Dr. Larry Silverberg, Committee Chair; Dr. Ashok Gopalarathnam, Committee Member; Dr. Edward Grant, Committee MemberTwo approaches for the autonomous control of aerospace vehicle formations are developed. The development of the approaches relies on fundamental work in the areas of distributed control; specifically modal, robust, optimal, and decentralized control. The algorithms are shown to satisfy five separation principles that simplify design and enable the algorithms to be implemented reliably. The autonomous controllers uniformly dampen the modes of the formation (global control) using a decentralized approach and a nearest-neighbor approach. A numerical example illustrates robust formation changes from 9-vehicle (3 x 3) grids to V-type formations.
- Vehicle Control in Full Unsteady Flow Using Surface Measurements(2010-03-16) Levedahl, Blaine Alexander; Dr. Ashok Gopalarathnam, Committee Member; Dr. Fred Dejarnette, Committee Member; Dr. Larry Silverberg, Committee Chair; Dr. Winser Alexander, Committee MemberThis dissertation is the first comprehensive attempt to address a new engineering problem: control of a vehicle maneuvering in a full unsteady flow field. The approach to the solution is focused in three main areas: modeling of a vehicle in full unsteady flow, control of a vehicle in full unsteady flow, and synthesizing the fluid loads for use in control of a vehicle maneuvering in a full unsteady flow field. To model a vehicle maneuvering in a full unsteady flow field this dissertation develops the Coupled Fluid Vehicle (CFV) model in which the fluid, which is a sum of a finite number of spatially dependent velocity fields whose contributions vary with time, is coupled to the vehicle rigid-body equations of motion. To control a vehicle maneuvering in a full unsteady flow field this dissertation develops the Fluid Compensation Control (FCC) strategy which gives the designer an opportunity to include the fluid states, in addition to the vehicle states, in the control law and an opportunity to balance reducing the fluid dynamic load through compensation and reducing the state error through regulation. To synthesize the fluid loads this dissertation has attempted to forward current work on the prediction of fluid loads from stagnation and separation point measurements using the Kutta principle, which says that the velocity around a vehicle is a smoothly varying function and that it is determined up to a multiplicative constant by its nodes (stagnation, separation, and reattachment points/lines), and by conducting an experiment to attempt to determine the correlation of the fluidic loads from the orientation and separation lines on a 3-dimensional bluff body.