Abstract

In this talk, aircraft system identification and control will be presented. Aircraft system identification is the process of determining
an adequate mathematical model of aircraft system, with unknown aerodynamic parameters which have to be determined from measured flight data. The accurate knowledge of aerodynamic parameters is very essential for controlling the aircraft system dynamics. In my presentation, the following parameter estimation problems related to aircraft systems will be discussed.

1. Calibration of aircraft flow angles in airdata system using sensor fusion approach.

2. Aircraft aerodynamic parameter estimation from noisy data using adaptive nonlinear filter.

3. Identification of aerodynamic derivatives and structural modes of a flexible aircraft.

Brief outline on my research contributions in the area of stability analysis will also be presented. Finally, the presentation will be
concluded with glimpse of my future research plan and teaching interest.

Biographical Sketch of Speaker

Majeed Mohamed obtained his B. Tech. from Calicut University, Kerala in 1988, and M. Tech. and Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi on 2002 and 2012 respectively. He is currently working as Senior Scientist in CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore. His research interests include aircraft parameter estimation and system identification, flight dynamics and control, stochastic estimation and aircraft modeling, nonlinear control and adaptive state estimation for flight vehicles, and flight instrumentation and sensor fusion. He has been working in the area of aircraft parameter estimation from flight data for transport aircraft (SARAS) and light compact aircraft (TEJAS). He has also expertise in the field of micro-processor based instrumentation system design while working at CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi.

The Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Kanpur, invites applications for postdoctoral positions in the following areas.

1) Aerospace Vehicle Design 2) Flight Mechanics and Control 3) Space Dynamics 4) Turbo Machinery 5) Rocket and Gas Turbine Propulsion 6) High Speed/Low Speed Aerodynamics 7) CFD/CSD 8) Wind Energy 9) Aeroacoustics 10) Dynamics and Control 11) Aerospace Structures and Materials 12) Structural Dynamics and Aeroelasticity 13) Helicopter Dynamics and Control 14) MAV and UAV

The applicants must have a PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering or related fields from reputed universities in India and abroad. Candidates who have submitted their PhD thesis are also eligible to apply. However, they are expected to successfully defend their PhD thesis within six months from the date of their joining (if selected). The applicant may or may not specify the name of the mentor faculty member during the time of application. However, we encourage potential applicants to get in touch with prospective mentors before applying.

The details of research topics and faculty profile of the department can be seen at the webpage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/aero. Please send/email your application with the following details:

• Curriculum vita

• List of publications

• Statement of research

• Two/three reference letters to be sent independently to

Prof. A. K. Ghosh

Head, Department of Aerospace Engineering
IIT Kanpur
Kanpur 208016

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The applicants are welcome to apply anytime during a given calendar year. The selection process will be completed and the decision will be communicated to applicants within three months from the date of application. Short-listed applicants will be invited to give a seminar in the department. Each appointment will be made initially for a period of one year, and it may be extended subject to satisfactory performance. Under no circumstances the fellowship duration can exceed three years.

The fellowship amount will be Rs. 50,000/- per month for the first year, Rs. 55,000/- per month for the second year, and Rs. 60,000/- per month for the third year. The candidate will also receive Rs. 1,00,000/- per year for travel and contingency. Suitable accommodation and medical facilities are provided.

Link for online application: https://pingala.iitk.ac.in/IITKFR-0/login

Abstract

State estimation plays a key role in several real life applications. In most of the cases it is not advisable to measure the complete states of the system due to system limitations or the sensors used for measurements are bulky, noisy or expensive. In this talk two classes of state estimators will be presented. The first class consists of recently developed cubature filters namely cubature information filters and cubature H-infinity filters. Cubature information filters are developed in information domain and they can easily be extended for multiple sensors, whereas cubature H-infinity filters are deveoped by fusing cubature Kalman filter and H-infinity filter and can handle non-Gaussian noise. The square root versions of these filters are further developed for numerical accuracy. The efficacy of these filters are validated on SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping) problem. The next class of filters consist of LPV (linear parameter varying) sliding mode observer. This observer has a capability to deal with inexact scheduling parameter knowledge. Further, it is developed to reconstruct the faults. This observer is then used to reconstruct the actuator faults of a high-fidelity aircraft model.

Biographical Sketch of Speaker

Bharani Chandra Kumar Pakki received B.Tech degree from JNTU, Hyderabad, India, M.Tech in Control Systems from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, India and Ph.D from University of Leicester, UK. Before joining Ph.D, for a short period, he worked as a research assistant at Dept. of Aerospace Engineering at IISc, Bangalore and at IIT-Bombay, India. He also worked as an assistant Professor at GMRIT, India and was a Team lead, Control Systems Group at Coral Digital Technologies (P) Ltd., Bangalore, India. Currently he is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter.

His research interests include control systems design, state estimation and robotics. He has published a few papers in refereed conferences and journals.

Abstract

The talk will focus on use of CFD as a research tool, particularly in hypersonic flows where experimental and flight test data are not easy to obtain. Shock fitting methods have recently been used to study the receptivity process for hypersonic boundary layer. These methods are particularly suited for receptivity studies since they are capable of a uniformly high order solution throughout the computational domain, including the near-shock regions. Further research efforts will include addition of state-to-state kinetics and effects of surface curvature and roughness. Also included in the discussion will be alternatives to increase simulation capabilities to include larger domains. One such way is to use the highly parallelizable LBM, which have recently been extended to supersonic flows. Other techniques like adaptive mesh refinement also have potential to enhance the efficiency of solution schemes, making simulation of larger domains more feasible.

Biographical Sketch of Speaker

Dr. Akshay Prakash earned his BTech and MTech from IITB, India in Mechanical Engineering in the year 2005. Thereafter in 2011 he was awarded PhD from UCLA on accomplishment of his research, aimed at understanding receptivity and stability of hypersonic boundary by studying the effects of thermochemical non-equilibrium in a Mach 5.7 air flow over a blunt body. Dr. Prakash thereafter contributed towards two different Postdoctoral researches. The first was a simulation of a new IFMIF design by ENEA using Fluent. His contribution was towards establishing the safety margins for the range of prescribed design operating conditions. The latest of the researches was an industrially-collaborated research on the turbulence modelling of a large Bioreactor based on the highly parallelizable Lattice Boltzmann Methods.