Design of 4 × 4 Low-Profile Antenna Array for CubeSat Applications.

This paper presents a low-profile microstrip antenna with high gain for fifth-generation (5G) CubeSat applications. The proposed design consists of 16 miniaturized patch antennas distributed in a uniform 4 × 4 topology with a feeding network on Rogers TMM10 substrate. The antenna array was simulated in CST Studio Suite® software and fabricated for performance testing on the CubeSat structure. The prototype works perfectly from 3.46 GHz to 3.54 GHz. The simulated and measurement results reveal remarkable performance. The design obtained a measured gain of 8.03 dBi and a reflection coefficient of -17.4 dB at the center frequency of 3.5 GHz. Due to its reduced dimensions of 10 × 10 cm, this design is an excellent alternative for mounting on a CubeSat structure as it combines efficient performance with a low profile.

Observability Analysis and Observer Design for a Nonlinear Three-Tank System: Theory and Experiments.

This paper addresses the observability analysis and observer design for a nonlinear interacting three-tank system. The plant configuration is first described using the process and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) and a state-space realization is derived; some insights about the behavior of the nonlinear system, considering equilibrium points and the phase portrait are provided. Then, observability in the Hermann-Krener sense is analyzed. A high-gain observer (HGO) is then designed, using the equivalence of the original state-space realization with its observability canonical form, in order to guarantee convergence of the state estimation. The performance was validated through simulation and experiments in a multipurpose plant equipped with real sensors; the HGO response was compared to a Luenberger observer (for a linear approximation of the plant) and the Extended Kalman Filter (for which convergence is not guaranteed), considering nonlinearities, interaction, disturbances and noise. Theoretical and experimental results show that the HGO can provide robust estimation and disturbance rejection, despite the sensitivity of HGOs to noisy variables in processes such as level of liquids.

Fault tolerant system based on non-integers order observers: Application in a heat exchanger.

This work presents a fault-tolerant (FT) scheme based on the application of non-integer order observers also called fractional observers, the case of study is a double pipe countercurrent heat exchanger (HE). The aim of the FT is to detect sensors faults as soon as possible, and to provide a healthy signal in order to replace the faulty sensor signal by the fractional observer estimation. To develop the FT scheme a bank of high gain fractional order observers (HGFOO) is proposed. The Riemann-Liouville (RL) fractional derivative definition is used to solve each fractional observer. Experimental measures from a HE were used to test the performance of the fractional observers and the control scheme. The results show the robustness of the proposed observers.

Sensor fault detection and isolation system for a condensation process.

This article presents the design of a sensor Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) system for a condensation process based on a nonlinear model. The condenser is modeled by dynamic and thermodynamic equations. For this work, the dynamic equations are described by three pairs of differential equations which represent the energy balance between the fluids. The thermodynamic equations consist in algebraic heat transfer equations and empirical equations, that allow for the estimation of heat transfer coefficients. The FDI system consists of a bank of two nonlinear high-gain observers, in order to detect, estimate and to isolate the fault in any of both outlet temperature sensors. The main contributions of this work were the experimental validation of the condenser nonlinear model and the FDI system.