Affiliations: Maritime Platforms Division, Defence Science and
Technology Organisation, Department of Defence, 506 Lorimer St., Fishermans
Bend, VIC 3207, Australia | School of Business Information Technology, Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology, GPO Box 2497V, Melbourne VIC 3001,
Australia
Abstract: The implementation of Soft Computing methodologies in two aerospace
design problems is presented, one being the design of quiet and efficient
aircraft propellers, and the other being the manoeuvre control of a satellite.
They were chosen as they present very challenging engineering design problems
with nonlinearities and discontinuities in the design space. The methodologies
used include Simulated Annealing for design optimisation, Neural Networks for
system representation and Fuzzy Logic for system control. The choice of these
methods over conventional analytical techniques is shown to enable the solution
of these design problems. The propeller design methodology described produces
designs that have equivalent or improved performance and significantly reduced
noise when compared to commercial off-the-shelf designs. The optimal satellite
controller described shows significant improvements in reduced settling time
and overshoot when compared to conventional controllers.
