Proactive Steering Disturbance Control for Mobile Structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional directional control systems for vehicles are inflexible and require extensive testing and adjustment for each vehicle type, leading to high manufacturing costs and accuracy issues under varying environmental conditions, as they typically rely on adaptive techniques that struggle to address disturbances proactively.
Innovation Solution
A proactive directional control system utilizing a logic device that interfaces with sensors and actuators to determine steering angle disturbances based on environmental conditions, generating feed-forward correction signals to adjust directional control, and incorporating a nominal vehicle feedback system for stabilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional adaptive control techniques are used for directional control, then the system can be adjusted to specific vehicle dynamics, but the training process takes too long and the system loses accuracy when conditions vary outside training parameters
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of vehicle dynamics and environmental conditions before actual directional control operations. The logic device proactively determines vehicle dynamics characteristics and stores them for future use, eliminating the need for lengthy real-time training when conditions change.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adapts to changing vehicle dynamics and environmental conditions by continuously monitoring sensor inputs (accelerometers, gyroscopes, wind sensors) and updating control parameters in real-time, rather than relying on static pre-trained models.
2Reliability
If conventional directional control systems are designed for particular vehicle types, then they can provide accurate control for those vehicles, but manufacturing costs increase due to extensive testing and adjustment for each vehicle type
Solution Approach 1:
The logic device is designed to universally identify and adapt to different vehicle dynamics characteristics across multiple vehicle types. By using sensor arrays and proactive identification algorithms, a single controller can be manufactured for multiple vehicle types without requiring vehicle-specific calibration, reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining accuracy.
3Ease of manufacture
If adaptive control techniques are used to reduce calibration requirements, then manufacturing costs decrease, but the system struggles to address environmental disturbances proactively
Solution Approach 1:
The system proactively identifies environmental conditions (wind, waves, currents) and vehicle dynamics before disturbances occur, and pre-calculates compensatory control actions. This allows the system to counteract disturbances before they significantly affect directional control, maintaining reliability without extensive calibration.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors sensor inputs including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and environmental sensors, and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust control parameters. This closed-loop feedback mechanism enables the system to adapt to changing conditions and handle disturbances effectively without requiring vehicle-specific calibration.
Data Source
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AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for systems and methods to provide proactive directional control for a mobile structure. A proactive directional control system may include a logic device, a memory, one or more sensors, one or more actuators/ controllers, and modules to interface with users, sensors, actuators, and/or other modules of a mobile structure. The logic device is adapted to determine a steering angle disturbance estimate based on environmental conditions associated with the mobile structure, and the steering angle disturbance estimate is used adjust a directional control signal provided to an actuator of the mobile structure. The logic device may also be adapted to receive directional data about a mobile structure and determine nominal vehicle feedback from the directional data, which may be used to adjust and/or stabilize the directional control signal provided to the actuator.