lnl-17sep04-pres.ppt-AIAAHoustonSection.pptVIP

Trajectory OptimizationFrom Euler … to Lawden … to Today Christopher D’Souza The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Houston, TX Why Optimize? Engineers are always interested in finding the ‘best’ solution to the problem at hand Fastest Fuel Efficient Optimization theory allows engineers to accomplish this Often the solution may not be easily obtained In the past, it has been surrounded by a certain mystique This seminar is aimed at demystifying trajectory optimization Practical trajectory optimization is now within reach State of the art computers State of the art algorithms In order to fully appreciate trajectory optimization, however, one must understand something about it’s history We need to understand where we’ve been in order to appreciate where we are The Greeks started it! Queen Dido of Carthage (7 century BC) Daughter of the king of Tyre Fled Tyre to Tunisia Agreed to buy as much land as she could “enclose with one bull’s hide” Set out to choose the largest amount of land possible, with one border along the sea A semi-circle with side touching the ocean Founded Carthage Fell in love with Aeneas but committed suicide when he left Story immortalized in Homer’s Aeneid The Italians Countered Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) His work Mécanique Analytique (Analytical Mechanics) (1788) was a mathematical masterpiece Invented the method of ‘variations’ which impressed Euler and became ‘calculus of variations’ Invented the method of multipliers (Lagrange multipliers) Sensitivities of the performance index to changes in states/constraints Became the ‘father’ of ‘Lagrangian’ Dynamics Euler-Lagrange Equations Obtained the equilibrium points of the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun system The Multi-Talented Mr. Euler Euler (1707-1783) Friend of Lagrange Published a treatise which became the de facto standard of the ‘calculus of variations’ The Method of Finding Curves that Show Some Property of Maximum or Minimum He solved the brachistachrone (brachistos = shortest, chronos