This book provides an introduction to the emerging field of planning and decision making for aerial robots. An aerial robot is the ultimate form of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, an aircraft endowed with built-in intelligence, requiring no direct human control and able to perform a specific task. It must be able to fly within a partially structured environment, to react and adapt to changing environmental conditions and to accommodate for the uncertainty that exists in the physical world. An aerial robot can be termed as a physical agent that exists and flies in the real 3D world, can sense its environment and act on it to achieve specific goals. So throughout this book, an aerial robot will also be termed as an agent.

Fundamental problems in aerial robotics include the tasks of spatial motion, spatial sensing and spatial reasoning. Reasoning in complex environments represents a difficult problem. The issues specific to spatial reasoning are planning and decision making. Planning deals with the trajectory algorithmic development based on the available information, while decision making determines priorities and evaluates potential environmental uncertainties.

The issues specific to planning and decision making for aerial robots in their environment are examined in this book and categorized as follows: motion planning, deterministic decision making, decision making under uncertainty and finally multi-robot planning. A variety of techniques are presented in this book, and a number of relevant case studies are examined. The topics considered in this book are multidisciplinary in nature and lie at the intersection of Robotics, Control Theory, Operational Research and Artificial Intelligence.

China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) 2019 Proceedings presents selected research papers from CSNC2019 held during 22nd-25th May in Beijing, China. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 12 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2019, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

Process Control for Sheet-Metal Stamping presents a comprehensive and structured approach to the design and implementation of controllers for the sheet metal stamping process. The use of process control for sheet-metal stamping greatly reduces defects in deep-drawn parts and can also yield large material savings from reduced scrap. Sheet-metal forming is a complex process and most often characterized by partial differential equations that are numerically solved using finite-element techniques. In this book, twenty years of academic research are reviewed and the resulting technology transitioned to the industrial environment. The sheet-metal stamping process is modeled in a manner suitable for multiple-input multiple-output control system design, with commercially available sensors and actuators. These models are then used to design adaptive controllers and real-time controller implementation is discussed. Finally, experimental results from actual shop floor deployment are presented along with ideas for further improvement of the technology. Process Control for Sheet-Metal Stamping allows the reader to design and implement process controllers in a typical manufacturing environment by retrofitting standard hydraulic or mechanical stamping presses and as such will be of interest to practising engineers working in metal-working, automotive and aeronautical industries. Academic researchers studying improvements in process control and how these affect the industries in which they are applied will also find the text of value.

For several decades it has been widely accepted that human space exploration is the exclusive domain of government agencies. The cost of performing such missions, estimated in multiple reports to amount to hundreds of billions dollars over decades, was far beyond what private entities could afford. That arrangement seems to be changing. Buoyed by the success of its program to develop commercial cargo capabilities to support the International Space Station, NASA is becoming increasingly open to working with the private sector in its human space exploration plans. The new private-public partnership will make 'planet hopping' feasible. This book analyses the move towards planet hopping, which sees human outposts moving across the planetary dimensions, from the Moon to Near-Earth Asteroids and Mars. It critically assesses the intention to exploit space resources and how successful these missions will be for humanity. This insightful and accessible book will be of great interest to scholars and students of space policy and politics, international studies, and science and technology studies.

Designed for readers from grade 6 and up, this lavishly illustrated set provides comprehensive coverage of the history of aviation, including space flight, as well as the science and technology on which it depends. Detailed A-Z entries trace the development of human flight from ancient myths and legends through today's space exploration, highlighting scientific discoveries and innovations that made aviation possible."IFlight and Motion" also celebrates the contributions and achievements of the pioneers and visionaries of air and space flight, from inventors and innovators to pilots, astronauts, and cosmonauts. Detailed illustrated diagrams give readers a general understanding of the mechanics of flight and of the physics and technology involved. The set also highlights key air and spacecrafts that have made a unique mark in the history of flight. It features more than 500 full-color and black-and-white photos and illustrations, and also includes a timeline, a listing of museums and exhibits, further reading lists, a comprehensive glossary, and general and subject indexes.

Situational awareness has become an increasingly salient factor contributing to flight safety and operational performance, and the research has burgeoned to cope with the human performance challenges associated with the installation of advanced avionics systems in modern aircraft. The systematic study and application of situational awareness has also extended beyond the cockpit to include air traffic controllers and personnel operating within other complex, high consequence work domains. This volume offers a collection of essays that have made important contributions to situational awareness research and practice. To this end, it provides unique access to key readings that address the conceptual development of situational awareness, methods for its assessment, and applications to enhance situational awareness through training and design.

Aircraft Structures concisely and comprehensively presents the basics of aircraft design and analysis and is intended for students in aerospace and mechanical engineering. In three sections and focusing particularly on the function of aircraft parts, this volume treats the fundamentals of aircraft design, excluding the engine and the avionics. The first part deals with the basics of structural analysis, including mechanics or rigid bodies, energy principles, analysis of trusses, and analysis of continuum structures. In the second part, basic aerodynamics, loads, beams, shafts, buckling of columns, bending and buckling of thin plates and shear flow, shear center and shear lag, aeroplane fuselage and wing and fatigue are explained. The third section covers additional topics, such as finite element analysis, aircraft construction materials and aeroelasticity. With an emphasis on lightweight design, this volume further presents some special topics, such as box beams in wings, ring frames in fuselage, and longitudinal stiffeners. With many examples and solved problems, this textbook on aircraft structures is an essential source of information for both students and engineering professionals who want to introduce themselves to the topic.

This book provides readers with basic concepts and design theories for space robots and presents essential methodologies for implementing space robot engineering by introducing several concrete projects as illustrative examples. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of professional theories in the field of space robots, and will find an initial introduction to the engineering processes involved in developing space robots. Rapid advances in technologies such as the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence have also produced profound changes in space robots. With the continuous expansion of human exploration of the universe, it is imperative for space robots to be capable of sharing knowledge, working collaboratively, and becoming more and more intelligent so as to optimize the utilization of space resources. For on-orbit robots that perform service tasks such as spacecraft assembly and maintenance, as well as exploration robots that carry out research tasks on planetary surfaces, the rational integration into a network system can greatly improve their capabilities in connection with executing outer space tasks, such as information gathering and utilization, independent decision-making and planning, risk avoidance, and reliability, while also significantly reducing resource consumption for the system as a whole.

This book highlights the latest developments and the author's own research achievements in high speed pneumatic control theory and applied technology. Chiefly focusing on the control system and energy system, it presents the basic theory and pioneering technologies for aerospace and aviation, while also addressing e.g. pneumatic servo control theory, pneumatic nonlinear mechanisms, aerothermodynamics, pneumatic servo mechanisms, and sample applications of high temperature and high speed gas turbine systems in aerospace, aviation, and major equipment.

The two-volume Structural Dynamics Fundamentals and Advanced Applications is a comprehensive work that encompasses the fundamentals of structural dynamics and vibration analysis, as well as advanced applications used on extremely large and complex systems. In Volume II, d'Alembert's Principle, Hamilton's Principle, and Lagrange's Equations are derived from fundamental principles. Development of large structural dynamic models and fluid/structure interaction are thoroughly covered. Responses to turbulence/gust, buffet, and static-aeroelastic loading encountered during atmospheric flight are addressed from fundamental principles to the final equations, including aeroelasticity. Volume II also includes a detailed discussion of mode survey testing, mode parameter identification, and analytical model adjustment. Analysis of time signals, including digitization, filtering, and transform computation is also covered. A comprehensive discussion of probability and statistics, including statistics of time series, small sample statistics, and the combination of responses whose statistical distributions are different, is included. Volume II concludes with an extensive chapter on continuous systems; including the classical derivations and solutions for strings, membranes, beams, and plates, as well as the derivation and closed form solutions for rotating disks and sloshing of fluids in rectangular and cylindrical tanks. Dr. Kabe's training and expertise are in structural dynamics and Dr. Sako's are in applied mathematics. Their collaboration has led to the development of first-of-a-kind methodologies and solutions to complex structural dynamics problems. Their experience and contributions encompass numerous past and currently operational launch and space systems.

The break-up of BAA and the blocked takeover of Bratislava airport by the competing Vienna airport have brought the issue of airport competition to the top of the agenda for air transport policy in Europe. Airport Competition reviews the current state of the debate and asks whether airport competition is strong enough to effectively limit market power. It provides evidence on how travellers chose an airport, thereby altering its competitive position, and on how airports compete in different regions and markets. The book also discusses the main policy implications of mergers and subsidies.

The advent of supercomputers has brought computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to the forefront as a tool to analyze increasingly complex simulation scenarios in many fields. Computational aerodynamics problems are also increasingly moving towards being coupled, multi-physics and multi-scale with complex, moving geometries. The latter presents severe geometry handling and meshing challenges. Simulations also frequently use formal design optimization processes. This book explains the evolution of CFD and provides a comprehensive overview of the plethora of tools and methods available for solving complex scenarios while exploring the future directions and possible outcomes. Using numerous examples, illustrations and computational methods the author discusses turbulence modeling, pre and post processing, coupled solutions, the importance of design optimization, multiphysics problems, reduced order models, and large scale computations and the future of CFD. Advanced Computational Fluid and Aerodynamics is suitable for audiences engaged in computational fluid dynamics including advanced undergraduates, researchers and industrial practitioners.

The two-volume work, Structural Dynamics Fundamentals and Advanced Applications, is a comprehensive work that encompasses the fundamentals of structural dynamics and vibration analysis, as well as advanced applications used on extremely large and complex systems. Volume I covers Newton's Laws, single-degree-of-freedom systems, damping, transfer and frequency response functions, transient vibration analysis (frequency and time domain), multi-degree-of-freedom systems, forced vibration of single and multi-degree-of-freedom systems, numerical methods for solving for the responses of single and multi-degree-of-freedom systems, and symmetric and non-symmetric eigenvalue problems. In addition, a thorough discussion of real and complex modes, and the conditions that lead to each is included. Stochastic methods for single and multi-degree-of-freedom systems excited by random forces or base motion are also covered. Dr. Kabe's training and expertise are in structural dynamics and Dr. Sako's are in applied mathematics. Their collaboration has led to the development of first-of-a-kind methodologies and solutions to complex structural dynamics problems. Their experience and contributions encompass numerous past and currently operational launch and space systems.

Fully updated and revised, the second edition of this introductory text on air-breathing jet propulsion focuses on the basic operating principles of jet engines and gas turbines. A state-of-the-art review of turboramjet engines, hypersonic applications, geared turbofans, and adaptive cycle engines, accompanies an examination of emissions and pollutants, greatly expanding the importance of power generation gas turbines in industrial applications, and ensuring that students will be introduced to the most current trends in the subject. With completely rewritten chapters on the operating characteristics of components and ideal and nonideal cycle analysis, additional SI units in numerous examples, new and expanded end-of-chapter problems, and updated accompanying software, this remains the ideal text for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in aerospace and mechanical engineering.

This book presents select papers presented during the 6th National Symposium on Rotor Dynamics, held at CSIR-NAL, Bangalore, and focuses on the latest trends in rotor dynamics and various challenges encountered in the design of rotating machinery. The book is of interest to researchers from mechanical, aerospace, tribology and power industries, engineering service providers and academics.

This book presents selected papers presented in the Symposium on Applied Aerodynamics and Design of Aerospace Vehicles (SAROD 2018), which was jointly organized by Aeronautical Development Agency (the nodal agency for the design and development of combat aircraft in India), Gas-Turbine Research Establishment (responsible for design and development of gas turbine engines for military applications), and CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (involved in major aerospace programs in the country such as SARAS program, LCA, Space Launch Vehicles, Missiles and UAVs). It brings together experiences of aerodynamicists in India as well as abroad in Aerospace Vehicle Design, Gas Turbine Engines, Missiles and related areas. It is a useful volume for researchers, professionals and students interested in diversified areas of aerospace engineering.

This book presents the latest researches on hypersonic steady glide dynamics and guidance, including the concept of steady glide reentry trajectory and the stability of its regular perturbation solutions, trajectory damping control technique for hypersonic glide reentry, singular perturbation guidance of hypersonic glide reentry, trajectory optimization based on steady glide, linear pseudospectral generalized nominal effort miss distance guidance, analytical entry guidance and trajectory-shaping guidance with final speed and load factor constraints. They can be used to solve many new difficult problems in entry guidance. And many practical engineering cases are provided for the readers for better understanding. Researchers and students in the fields of flight vehicle design or flight dynamics, guidance and control could use the book as valuable reference.

Over the past several decades, commercial air traffic has been growing at a far greater rate than airport capacity, causing airports to become increasingly congested. How can we accommodate this increased traffic and at the same time alleviate traffic delays resulting from congestion? The response outside the US has been to set a maximum number of slots and use administrative procedures to allocate these among competing airlines, with the most important consideration being 'grandfather rights' to existing carriers. The United States, on the other hand, has used administrative procedures to allocate slots at only four airports. In all other cases, flights have been handled on a first-come, first-served basis, with aircraft queuing for the privilege of landing or taking off from a congested airport. While recognizing the advantages of slot systems in lessening delays, economists have criticized both approaches as being sub-optimal, and have advocated procedures such as slot auctions, peak-load pricing and slot trading to better utilize congested airports. Edited by an international team of air transport economists and drawing on an impressive list of contributors, Airport Slots provides an extremely comprehensive treatment of the subject. It considers the methods currently used to allocate slots and applies economic analysis to each. The book then explains various schemes to increase public welfare by taxing or pricing congestion, and describes alternate slot-allocation schemes, most notably slot auctions. In addition, Airport Slots outlines the complexities involved in slot-allocation methods, including the requirement for multiple slots - a take-off slot at London Heathrow is useless unless there is a landing slot available at Frankfurt for a London Frankfurt flight. Finally, the book explores the economic pitfalls of slot-allocation schemes; for example, controls may not be required if external delay costs are internalized by a dominant carrier at its hub. Airport Slots provides a valuable contribution to the debate on how best to limit airport congestion. The book's comprehensive treatment of the subject matter provides the reader with a 'one-stop' volume to explore airport congestion and slot-allocation schemes, offering valuable insights to academics and practitioners alike.

This book focuses on the performance and application of fluidic nozzle throats for solid rocket motors, discussing their flow details and characterization performance, as well as the influence of the particle phase on their performance. It comprehensively covers a range of fluidic nozzle throats in solid rocket motors and is richly illustrated with impressive figures and full-color photographs. It is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of aeronautics, astronautics and related industries wishing to understand the fundamentals and theories of fluidic nozzle throats and engage in fluidic nozzle throat analysis and design.

European Air Traffic Management: Principles, Practice and Research is a single source of reference on the key subject areas of air traffic management in Europe. It brings together material that was previously unobtainable, hidden within technical documents or dispersed across disparate sources. With a broad cross-section of contributors from across the industry and academia, the book offers an effective treatment of the key issues in current, and developing, European ATM. It explains the principles of air traffic management and its practical workings, bridging the academic and operational worlds to give an insight into this evolving field, with a number of fresh perspectives brought to the text. On-going research and developments are closely integrated into the themes, demonstrating the likely directions of future ATM in Europe and the challenges it will face. It is anticipated that many readers will already have expertise in one or more of the chapters' subject matter, but wish to develop a further understanding of the areas covered in others, taking advantage of the many thematic and operational links which have been illustrated. The book will appeal to both aviation academics and practitioners, equally for those whose area of expertise is outside ATM but want a clearly elucidated source of reference, as to those wishing to broaden existing knowledge.

Based on the six-year NASA Aviation Safety and Security Program Human Performance Modeling project, a collaboration of five teams from industry and academia, Human Performance Modeling in Aviation chronicles the results of modeling NASA-supplied data on two aviation flight deck problems: pilot surface operations taxi errors, and approach and landing with synthetic vision systems. The book provides a deep understanding of the aviation problems and "what-if" system redesigns of flight deck technologies and procedures.

Five modeling teams describe how they applied their models to these two problems and discuss the results in terms of the specific problems addressed, the modeling challenges faced, and the modeling solutions developed to address complex, real-world situations. The book then compares the five modeling tools used, shedding light on the unique approach that each brings to bear on two qualitatively different problems. It includes a "virtual roundtable discussion" that poses questions to each of the five teams and offers take-home lessons and insights into the modeling process and its complexities. The modeling teams also explore the issue of model validation and the approach that they adopted.

Concluding with a summary of how modeling fits into the system design and evaluation process, the text covers state-of-the-art advances in human performance modeling for complex systems. Critical for modeling aviation-domain tasks, these modeling capabilities can also be applied to other complex-system domains such as process control, medical applications, surface transportation, and military command and control, which share similar human-system interaction issues.

The most iconic planes of WWII, the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, DeHavilland Mosquito and the Avro Lancaster, were all powered by one engine, the Rolls-Royce Merlin. The story of the Merlin is one of British ingenuity at its height, of artistry and problem-solving that resulted in a war-winning design. Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day and the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain, Merlin is the extraordinary story of the development of the Rolls-Royce engine that would stop Hitler from invading Britain and carry the war to the very heart of Germany. The story of the Merlin engine encompasses the history of powered flight, from the ingenuity of the Wright Brothers to the horrors of World War I, and from the first crossing of the Atlantic to the heady days of flying in the 1920s. There is also the extraordinary story of the Schneider Trophy - an international contest wherein nations poised on the precipice of war competed for engineering excellence in the name of progress. And at the heart of this story are the glamourous lives of the pilots, many of whom died in their pursuit of speed; the engineers, like Henry Royce of Rolls-Royce, who sketched the engine that would win WWII in the sand of his local beach; and perhaps most importantly the Lady Lucy Houston who after the Wall Street Crash singlehandedly funded the development of the engine and the iconic Spitfire. Never was so much owed by so many to so few - and without the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the few would have been powerless.