Heliogyro Solar Sail
- 1 min 
In a Nutshell
The project focused on a solar sailing concept using solar pressure as main propulsion. I was part of the Structural Dynamics group at NASA Langley (LaRC) group that worked on the vehicle simulation and I developed a discrete time model for the flexible beam dynamics and applied linear system identification to analyze the mode shapes of the spacecraft.
I analyzed an envelope of stability and applied model based predictive control with root piezocomposite active twist controllers to control the flexible blade using Matlab/Simulink. The simulation showed that root twist controllers are feasible of stabilizing a flexible blade while providing good performance.
Here is an example of the single blade six mass coupled bending-twisting simulation:
Key Challenges
- Deriving the coupled flexible structural equations.
- Analyzing the effect of solar pressure on the coupled structure and specifying the dynamic modal changes associated to the structure deformation.
- Identifying a linearized model for the flexible nonlinear structure.
- Applying Model Predictive Control (MPC) to stabilize the flexible beam.
More Info
More information on this work can be found in my publications
- Challenges Associated with System Identification and Control of a Heliogyro Membrane Blade
- Adaptive Control of a Heliogyro Membrane Blade
Han-Hsun (Jack) Lu
A Man who loves learning and traveling