Graduation Semester and Year

2008

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Kamesh Subbarao

Abstract

Trajectory design and optimization has a broad variety of applications in fields such as aerospace and electrical engineering. The solution of a trajectory that minimizes a cost function subject to nonlinear differential equations of motion and various types of constraints may be obtained by the methods of optimal control theory. A framework is presented for numerical solution of the optimal control problem. The solution is converted to that of a constrained discrete parameter optimization problem. Direct collocation and nonlinear programming are used to perform a local gradient-based search for the optimal solution. A genetic algorithm combined with a shooting method conducts a global search of the solution space to provide a near-optimal, near-feasible initialization for the nonlinear program. The framework is applied to three minimum-time case studies: i) a path planning problem for two mobile robots with obstacle avoidance; ii) an aircraft turning maneuver; iii) a low-thrust interplanetary transfer.

Disciplines

Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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