Italian Aerospace Research Centre

About: Italian Aerospace Research Centre is a other organization based out in Capua, Campania, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerodynamics & Morphing. The organization has 278 authors who have published 400 publications receiving 3563 citations. The organization is also known as: CIRA & Italian Aerospace Research Center.

Deorbiting small satellites from the ISS using a tether system

Abstract: This paper presents results of a study conducted for the project IPERDRONE that aims at the design and development of a small re-entry system, able to perform in-orbit operations near the International Space Station (ISS), to reenter the atmosphere, and to land safely on Earth bringing back scientific payloads/experiments intact from the ISS. The results presented focus on the dynamics of the tethered space drone using the Swing and Release technique in close proximity of the ISS to exchange momentum between the departing IPERDRONE and the ISS, and the active propulsion system needed for the re-entry trajectory. This study could lead to a new technological solution for deorbiting a space vehicle from the ISS that is low cost, safe and free of contamination.

Flight Testing Designs in HEXAFLY-INT for High-Speed Transportation

Abstract: Civil high-speed passenger transport only makes sense when deployed for long-haul intercontinental flights. Consequently, the related development and deployment of such a high-speed vehicle will most likely demand an international approach. The internationally funded HEXAFLY-INT project is a first step in the direction of civil high-speed transportation along with an international development where flighttesting is the focal point. The global aim is to flight test an experimental waverider-based vehicle concept above Mach 7 to verify its potential for a high cruise efficiency during a free-flight. In parallel, the concept will also be flight tested to prove the waverider concept is also able to take-off, to accelerate to subsonic speed and to land in an efficient and robust way. The feasibility for a 3m long vehicle was demonstrated during the European precursor project HEXAFLY. Its realization is now being enabled on an international scale preparing the grounds for global cooperation in case of a future deployment of a high-speed cruiser. These flight opportunities will increase drastically the Technology Readiness Level of developments realized in previous high-speed EC projects such as ATLLAS I & II and LAPCAT I & II. The present paper describes the various numerical and experimental investigations carried out so far by the different international partners.

A Review of Fault Detection and Diagnosis Methodologies for Air-Handling Units

Abstract: HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning) systems for space heating, space cooling and ventilation of buildings consume nearly 40% of the world energy demand and present the least expensive opportunities for reducing the greenhouse gases emission. Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) methods could monitor the operation of various processes and/or components allowing to detect and, if possible, even predict the presence of defects (deviations from normal or expected operation) as well as ideally identify (diagnose) the fault and/or its location, giving instructions for undertaking corrective actions. FDD techniques could be successfully used for managing the predictive maintenance and/or optimizing the energy/economic/environmental performance of HVAC units while assuring the comfort of occupants. This paper examines the current state of the art of the research on the development and implementation of FDD systems when applied to Air-Handling Units (AHUs), the main and most important device of HVAC systems. This paper describes the existing methodologies, approaches and tools for the utilization of FDD techniques, summarizes the most important findings available in current literature in reference to several case studies where FDD systems have been applied with reference to AHUs and indicates the main gaps to be further investigated.

Image Focusing Using Gauss-Laguerre Circular Harmonic Filters

Abstract: This paper presents a novel technique to measure the focus accuracy of an imaging system, by maximizing the energy captured by a bank of Gauss-Laguerre Circular Harmonic Filters (GL-CHFs). These indeed, provide a powerful tool to select and track a set of Focus Control Points (FCPs), over which a robust measure of the overall focus quality of the image can be computed. We will provide an experimental evidence that the proposed focus measure is monotonic and unimodal with respect to image blur and will present a comparative analysis against the most common algorithms available at the state of the art. The obtained results will show that the proposed technique is able to cope with highly noisy sensors, providing a valuable solution for the real time passive calibration of the optical payloads of Earth Observation systems.

Edgelet tracking using Gauss-Laguerre Circular Harmonic filters

Abstract: The paper presents a novel area-based technique aimed to the accurate subpixel estimation of straight lines, whose central and innovative aspect is represented by the minimization of an error function comprising a conveniently weighted version of the image response to the Gauss-Laguerre Circular Harmonic filter (1,0), which presents a high selectivity on border features. The paper presents a wide set of results, obtained in different contexts like highly noisy images and fast visual tracking, which confirm the robustness of the proposed technique and suggest its applicability as basic block in any application which could potentially benefit from the availability of accurate localization of long straight segments or short edgelet features.