Basics 5 min read
Political Conceptions of Human Rights
A political conception of human rights offers an account of what human rights are—or at least of what contemporary human…
THE ARCHIVES
Author: Boomi Nathan.
J. BoomiNathan is a writer at SenseCentral who specializes in making tech easy to understand. He covers mobile apps, software, troubleshooting, and step-by-step tutorials designed for real people—not just experts. His articles blend clear explanations with practical tips so readers can solve problems faster and make smarter digital choices. He enjoys breaking down complicated tools into simple, usable steps.
Basics 5 min read
Human Agency as the Basis of Human Rights
A justification for human rights—whether teleological, consequentialist, deontological, or something else—should justify the main features of human rights including their…
Basics 5 min read
How Can Human Rights Exist?
The most obvious way in which human rights exist is as norms of national and international law created by enactment…
Basics 8 min read
The General Idea of Human Rights
This section attempts to explain the generic idea of human rights by identifying four defining features. The goal is to…
Basics 8 min read
History of Human Rights
The belief that everyone, by virtue of her or his humanity, is entitled to certain human rights is fairly new.…
Avionics 2 min read
Need for Avionics in Civil, Military and Space Systems
Avionics are advanced electronics used in aircraft, spacecraft and satellites. These systems perform various functions including communication, navigation, flight control,…
Automatic Flight Control Systems 56 min read
Introduction to Tool-Based Design and Evaluation of Resilient Flight Control Systems
A large transport aircraft simulation benchmark (REconfigurable COntrol for Vehicle Emergency Return RECOVER) has been developed within the European GARTEUR Flight Mechanics Action Group 16 (FM-AG(16)) on Fault Tolerant Control (2004-2008) for the integrated evaluation of fault detection, identification (FDI) and reconfigurable flight control systems. The benchmark includes a suitable set of assessment criteria and failure cases, based on reconstructed accident scenarios, to assess the potential of new adaptive control strategies to improve aircraft survivability. The application of reconstruction and modeling techniques, using accident flight data for validation, has resulted in high fidelity non-linear…
Automatic Flight Control Systems 78 min read
Introduction to Effects of Automatic Flight Control
System on Chinook Underslung Load Failures One of the major helicopter attributes is its ability to transport cargo externally in the form of external slung loads (see Fig. 1). Commercial and military operators accept the fact that using a helicopter for external load transportation is usually expensive in terms of both money and time. However, helicopters still have the significant advantage of accessing unreachable sites. Operations of helicopters with external loads impose limitations to the use of the helicopter, as for example: helicopter maximum forward speed is usually severely reduced because of the danger on dynamic instabilities of the load; due to external load the aerodynamic drag can become excessive, resulting in power and control limitations on the helicopter. The problem addressed…
Automatic Flight Control Systems 39 min read
Introduction to Fault Tolerant Flight Control Techniques with Application to a Quadrotor UAV Testbed
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are gaining more and more attention during the last few years due to their important contributions and cost-effective applications in several tasks such as surveillance, search and rescue missions, geographic studies, as well as various military and security applications. Due to the requirements of autonomous flight under different flight conditions without a pilot onboard, control of UAV flight is much more challenging compared with manned aerial vehicles since all operations have to be carried out by the automated flight control, navigation and guidance algorithms embedded on the onboard flight microcomputer/microcontroller or with limited interference by a ground pilot if needed. As an example of UAV systems, the quadrotor helicopter is relatively a simple, affordable and easy to fly system and thus it has been widely used to develop, implement and test-fly…
Automatic Flight Control Systems 40 min read
Introduction to Adaptive Feedforward Control for Gust Loads Alleviation
Active control techniques for the gust loads alleviation/flutter suppression have been investigated extensively in the last decades to control the aeroelastic response, and improve the handling qualities of the aircraft. Nonadaptive feedback control algorithms such as classical single input single output techniques (Schmidt & Chen, 1986), linear quadratic regulator (LQR) theory (Mahesh et al., 1981; Newsom, 1979), eigenspace techniques (Garrard & Liebst, 1985; Leibst et al., 1988), optimal control algorithm (Woods-Vedeler et al., 1995), H∞ robust control synthesis technique (Barker et al., 1999) are efficient methods for the gust loads alleviation/flutter suppression. However, because of the time varying characteristics of the aircraft dynamics due to the varying configurations and operational parameters, such as fuel consumption, air density, velocity, air turbulence, it is difficult to synthesize a unique control law to work effectively throughout the whole flight envelope. Therefore, a gain scheduling technique is necessary to account for the time varying aircraft dynamics. An alternative methodology is the feedforward and/or feedback adaptive control algorithms by which the control law can be updated at every time step (Andrighettoni & Mantegazza, 1998; Eversman & Roy, 1996; Wildschek et al., 2006). With the novel development of the airborne LIght Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) turbulence sensor available for an accurate vertical gust velocity measurement at a considerable distance ahead of the aircraft (Schmitt, Pistner, Zeller, Diehl & Navé, 2007), it becomes feasible to design an adaptive feedforward control to alleviate the structural loads induced by any turbulence and extend the life of the structure. The adaptive feedforward control algorithm developed in (Wildschek et al., 2006) showed promising results for vibration suppression of the first wing bending mode. However, an unavoidable constraint for the application of this methodology is the usage of a high order Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter. As a result, an overwhelming computation effort was needed to suppress the structural vibration of the aircraft. In this chapter, an adaptive feedforward control algorithm where the feedforward filter is parameterized using orthonormal basis expansions along with a recursive least square algorithm with a variable forgetting factor is proposed for the feedforward compensation of gust loads. With the use of the orthonormal basis expansion, the prior flexible modes information of the aircraft dynamics can be incorporated to build the structure of the feedforward controller. With this strategy, the order of the feedforward filter to be estimated can be largely reduced. As a result, the computation effort is greatly decreased, and…
Automatic Flight Control Systems 45 min read
Introduction to Gain Tuning of Flight Control Laws for Satisfying Trajectory Tracking Requirements
The present chapter is concerned with presenting an approach for the synthesis of a gain- scheduled flight control law that assures compliance to trajectory tracking requirements. More precisely, a strategy is proposed for improving the tracking performances of a baseline controller, obtained by conventional synthesis techniques, by tuning its gains. The approach is specifically designed for atmospheric re-entry applications, in which gain scheduled flight control laws are typically used. Gain-scheduling design approaches conventionally construct a nonlinear controller by combining the members of an appropriate family of linear time-invariant (LTI) controllers…
Automatic Flight Control Systems 23 min read
Introduction to Quantitative Feedback Theory and Its Application in UAV’s Flight Control
Quantitative feedback theory (hereafter referred as QFT), developed by Isaac Horowitz (Horowitz, 1963; Horowitz and Sidi, 1972), is a frequency domain technique utilizing the Nichols chart in order to achieve a desired robust design over a specified region of plant uncertainty. Desired time-domain responses are transformed into frequency domain tolerances, which lead to bounds (or constraints) on the loop transmission function. The design process is highly transparent, allowing a designer to see what trade-offs are necessary to achieve a desired performance level. QFT is also a unified theory that emphasizes the use of feedback for achieving the desired system performance tolerances despite plant uncertainty and plant disturbances.…