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Browse AllLow Earth Orbit (LEO) remote sensing satellites exhibit significant limitations in emergency response operations, primarily due to the constraints of orbital mechanics and a traditional reliance on ground-involved, open-loop operational models. Current response latencies often span several hours, rendering acquired data less effective for disasters with rapid temporal dynamics. We propose a new intra-pass autonomous reaction application mode to solve this key problem in emergency response. We build the mode on an agile satellite platform operating in an 800 km sun-synchronous orbit. We equip the platform with two core sensors through an innovative design. The two sensors are an optical camera with 0.5-meter resolution and a forward-looking infrared camera. The infrared camera has a 600-kilometer swath and a 10-meter nadir resolution. We take onboard artificial intelligence technologies as the research core. The technologies support real-time and autonomous analysis of forward-looking infrared image data. This analytical capability facilitates the real-time detection and autonomous confirmation of stochastic events, such as wildfires, by leveraging onboard artificial intelligence (AI) to perform real-time analysis of IR imagery. This subsequently triggers immediate autonomous re-tasking for high-resolution follow-up observation within the same orbital pass. We establish an optimization model for the satellite system. The model is used to solve the key balance problem between the sensor forward-looking angle, achievable reaction time, and actual detection resolution. We conduct a detailed engineering time budget analysis for the whole satellite operation system. Analysis results show that a specific forward-looking angle must be set for the infrared camera to obtain a 70-second autonomous response window of the satellite. The 70second window contains 30 seconds for AI cognitive analysis, a maximum of 33.6 seconds for platform attitude maneuvering, and 10 seconds for platform stability adjustment. The minimum forward-looking angle required for the infrared camera is about 33.6 degrees. The ground sampling distance of the infrared camera will decrease to 12.2 meters at this angle. The resulting 12.2-meter ground sampling distance (GSD) remains sufficient to meet the practical requirements of early-stage detection. The proposed Intra-Pass Autonomous Reaction (IPAR) mode reduces emergency response times from hours to seconds, significantly enhancing the proactive observation capabilities of LEO platforms.
To address the complexity of the influence of expansion-section geometry on the thrust performance of solid rocket motor nozzles and the low efficiency of numerical-simulation-based optimization, this study proposes a deep-learning-based method for rapid nozzle thrust prediction. With a representative 70-lb BATES nozzle as the research object, the expansion-section contour is parameterized using cubic spline functions. Combined with Latin hypercube sampling and two-dimensional inviscid numerical simulations, a nozzle geometry– thrust dataset covering a wide range of contour characteristics is constructed. On this basis, surrogate models based on a fully connected neural network, a one-dimensional convolutional neural network, and a two-dimensional convolutional neural network are developed, and the applicability of different network architectures to the nozzle thrust prediction task is systematically compared. The results demonstrate that convolutional neural networks outperform fully connected networks in terms of geometric feature representation capability and prediction stability. In particular, by explicitly modeling the spatial structural features of the nozzle contour, the two-dimensional convolutional model achieves a coefficient of determination close to unity on the test set, with an average relative error of 0.03%. Further hyperparameter sensitivity analysis clarifies the effects of batch size, number of training epochs, and learning rate on model convergence behavior and generalization performance. This work provides a feasible technical support for rapid thrust evaluation and efficient optimization-oriented nozzle design.
As a core carrier of urban underground infrastructure, underground utility tunnels have an increasingly urgent demand for AAV swarm technology in operation and maintenance tasks such as internal pipeline inspection and fault diagnosis. However, the special environment of utility tunnels, characterized by GPS signal loss, narrow and enclosed space, and complex types of obstacles (including fixed pipeline supports and temporary construction components), poses severe challenges to AAV swarm operations. In this scenario, while maintaining the predetermined formation configuration, AAV swarms are required to complete three tasks simultaneously: accurately avoiding complex static obstacles in the tunnels, real-time evading other AAVs within the swarm to prevent intra-formation collisions, and strictly maintaining a safe distance from the tunnel walls. The superposition of these three constraints and the narrow operating space greatly increases the difficulty of swarm control. Traditional control methods often suffer from problems such as formation collapse, jerky obstacle avoidance, or wall scraping. To address the above pain points, this paper proposes an AAV swarm Model Predictive Control (MPC) method integrated with the Adaptive Perceptual Cauchy Mutation Pigeon-Inspired Optimization (APCMPIO) algorithm. This method optimizes the receding horizon parameters and constraint weights of model predictive control through the APCMPIO algorithm to achieve rapid response to complex dynamic scenarios, and embeds a dynamic safe distance threshold mechanism to balance formation integrity and individual safety. A simulation experiment was built for a utility tunnel inspection scenario with 6 AAVs. It significantly improves the operational adaptability and robustness of AAV swarms in constrained utility tunnel environments, providing reliable technical support for the swarm-based operation and maintenance of underground infrastructure.
To solve the critical challenges of uncoordinated operational node selection and premature mission termination caused by dynamic energy or coating depletion during anti-corrosion spraying on largescale steel structures, this paper proposes an advanced path planning methodology for UAVs. The proposed approach is built upon a BIMSLAM fusion model. Specifically, a high-fidelity three-dimensional (3D) environmental model is reconstructed by integrating offline BIM structural priors with real-time SLAM data. Furthermore, the framework implements the ICP algorithm and Kalman filtering simultaneously to eliminate point cloud noise and compensate for perceptual occlusions, thereby achieving a 5 cm localization accuracy in cluttered industrial environments. A dual-stage pipeline is established for pre-screening and dynamic evaluation. In the offline phase, geometrically inaccessible task points are identified and pruned via spatial accessibility analysis. During real-time operations, the onboard system continuously calculates the battery State of Charge (SoC), operational power, and remaining paint volume to eliminate inefficient flights. For the path generation stage, a hybrid search strategy is developed, which implements a Genetic Algorithm for task sequencing alongside a multi-objective cost function parameterized by four metrics: energy consumption, paint requirements, obstacle proximity, and task density. Additionally, Softmax is used to dynamically regulate the weight coefficients, enabling the system to balance operational safety and efficiency based on the instantaneous state vector. Finally, a fifth-order B-spline parameterization is used to maintain flight stability under complex wind disturbances and heavy time-varying payloads. Consequently, the results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms conventional baselines. The recorded 96.7% mission completion rate demonstrates its operational reliability for the maintenance of bridges and towers.