2004 Events:
November 17, 2004: "Eulerian Modeling and Predictive Control of Air Traffic Flow" by Dr. P. K. Menon, Optimal Synthesis Inc
Abstract: A methodology for mathematical modeling and analysis of air traffic flow is presented. The modeling approach describes the air traffic environment in terms of traffic counts in user-defined elements of the airspace system, and traffic flows between these elements. The resulting Eulerian model of air traffic allows dynamic analysis and flow-control system design using well-established control theoretic approaches. The primary advantage of the Eulerian approach is that the dimension of the air traffic flow model depends only on the number of defined elements in the traffic network, and remains invariant with respect to the number of aircraft in the airspace system. The synthesis of air traffic flow control algorithms using the model predictive control technique in conjunction with these models will be discussed. Computational implementation, and traffic flow control using air traffic data over the US national airspace will be given.
bio: Dr. Menon has been the president and chief scientist at Optimal Synthesis Inc since 1992. His experience includes 22 years as a research scientist in the aerospace industry, 6 years at Georgia Institute of Technology as a faculty member and 3 years with NASA as a visiting scientist. He has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the Santa Clara University since 1989.
Dr. Menon has been involved in the development of flight control systems for aircraft, rotorcraft, missiles, launch vehicles, spacecraft, and robots. He has received support in these research areas from the Navy, NASA, Air Force, DARPA and the Army. He has published extensively in professional journals and has presented papers at various national and international conferences. He has taught advanced graduate courses in Automatic Control, Signal Processing, and Flight Vehicle Guidanec and Control. He has directed Ph.D dissertations and numerous graduate Projects. Dr. Menon has lead short courses at AIAA and IEEE national conferences.
Dr. Menon is a member of Sigma Xi, Sigma Gamma Tau, Senior Member of the IEEE and Associate Fellow of the AIAA. He is the recipient of research awards from AIAA, NASA and the IEEE. Dr. Menon is a reviewer for 10 different archival journals on automatic control and signal processing, and has served as an Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics. He is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Control Applications.
October 7, 2004: "Shortcuts to Step Motor Selection" by Ted Lin, Lin Engineering
Abstract: Most step motor sales engineers would like to know the dynamic torque requirement before selecting a motor for their prospective customers. However, this is the most difficult question for a step motor user to answer. Therefore, the sales engineer will request the user¡¯s holding torque requirement rather than the dynamic torque. When the motor does not work the sales engineer selects another motor with higher holding torque, but this motor also fails. Thus a trial and error process begins. In reality, the motor with higher holding torque does not always give you a higher dynamic torque. It depends on the operating speed. Also, the motor with a higher holding torque always come with large rotor inertia, which will slow down the acceleration. There are several key factors outlined in the presentation that will help eliminate the trial and error between the step motor manufacturer and the customer engineer. For engineers with no time to waste, "Shortcuts to Step Motor Selection" is the perennial reference presentation for understanding step motor behavior.
bio: Mr. Ted T. Lin is a recognized technology leader in the field of step motors, spindle motors, voice coil actuators and control devices. He received a M.S. degree in physics from Northern Illinois University. He is an experienced technologist, holds eight patents and is the author of twelve publications. Mr. Lin's technical experience covers several fields of science including magnetic field design and control, mechanical structures and electronic control systems. He has been involved with the design of motors and components for hard disk drives since 1982. During his career, he has served as Manager of Advanced Motor Development for Warner Electric and Executive VP for Rotorque Technology. He is the President and CEO of Lin Engineering, a company that he found.