Navigation and Guidance Instructor:

(Course Code: AE 410/410M/641) Shashi

Department of Aerospace Engineering Ranjan
Kumar
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
September 10, 2022 Assignment : 1 Total points : 100

General Instructions

• Assignment needs to be submitted online in portable document format (pdf) on

Moodle. Handwritten assignments should be scanned in good quality to generate
the pdf file.

• The filename for the assignment should be rollnumber Assignment 1. For instance,
your final file must be named like this: 184010002 Assignment 1.

• Please show your steps clearly while solving problems. All symbols have their usual
meanings unless stated otherwise. If required, students should assume the appropriate
missing data and clearly mention it in their answers.

• Do not indulge in academic dishonesty. In cases where the answers of two students
are found to be copied, both of them will be awarded zero marks for that particular
question. Furthermore, those students may face disciplinary actions.

• Answer scripts must be uploaded on Moodle on or before 1 October 2022 11:55 pm

(firm deadline). Late submissions are not allowed. It is, therefore, recommended that
students should submit their assignments well before the deadline.

1. The unit vectors of frame A i.e., [X, Y, Z]T can be rotated first along the Z axis with
angle ϕ, second along X ′ axis with an angle θ and lastly about Z ′′ with angle ψ to obtain
unit vectors [x, y, z]T of frame B. The Euler angles (ϕ, θ, ψ) in radians are given as
functions of time in seconds as follows:

ϕ = 2te0.05t ,
θ = 0.02 + 0.3 sin 0.25t,
ψ = 0.6t.

(a) Find vector VA in frame A if the corresponding vector in frame B at t = 1s is

VB = [1, 1, 1]T .
⃗ = [ωx , ωy , ωz ]T at t = 0.
(b) Find the body fixed angular velocity vector ω

[10]

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Aerospace Engineering Aircraft flight Mechanics II Page 2 of 3

2. Consider a frame F1 and a frame F2 denoted by {i1 , j1 , k1 } and {i2 , j2 , k2 } unit vectors,
respectively. Let C12 be the direction cosine matrix (DCM) for transformation from
frame F1 to frame F2 . Find out the missing entries of C12 for
   
0.1587 c12 0.4858 c11 0.3188 0.2049
(a) C12 = 0.8595 −0.1218 c23  (b) C12 = −0.1632 0.8232 c23 
c31 0.4963 0.7195 −0.3420 c32 0.8138
[10]

3. Consider an aircraft that is assumed to be rigid. The Earth is assumed to be flat and
stationary in inertial space. Derive the expression for Euler angle rates [ϕ̇ θ̇ ψ̇]⊤
in terms of the body-fixed angular velocity vector, [p q r]⊤ when the orientation of
the body frame with respect to the Earth fixed frame can be specified by using three
sequential Euler angle rotations given below :

(a) About Y, Z ′ , and X ′′ axes, with angles θ, ψ, ϕ, respectively.

(b) About X, Z ′ , and Y ′′ axes, with angles ϕ, ψ, θ, respectively.

[10]

4. Consider a rotation of a vector, using quaternion, about an axis defined by the vector
(1, 0, 1) through an angle of 2π/3.

(a) Obtain the quaternion Q to perform this rotation. Also, compute the effect of
rotation on the basis vector j = (0, 1, 0).
(b) Find the coordinates of above vector in the new frame if we rotate the coordinate
frame itself about the same axis and angle while keeping the vector constant?

5. Prove that if the transformation matrix Rl (θ) represents the rotation around axis l by
an angle θ, the time derivative of this rotation matrix is given by

Ṙl (θ) = ω × Rl (θ),

where ω × is a skew-symmetric matrix of the angular velocity vector given by ω

⃗ = θ̇l. [10]

6. The force balance equation for an open loop spring-mass accelerometer is given as

d2 y dy d2 x
M + C + Ky = M = M a,
dt2 dt dt2
where M is the proof mass, x is the displacement of accelerometer frame with respect to
the inertial reference scale, y is the displacement of the proof mass with respect to the
accelerometer body fixed scale, C is the damping coefficient, K is axial spring stiffness,
and a is the input acceleration.

(a) Derive the expression for static sensitivity and damping ratio under steady-state
conditions.

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Aerospace Engineering Aircraft flight Mechanics II Page 3 of 3

(b) If the accelerometer has the proof mass of 2 × 10− 3 Kg, the natural frequency of
150 Hz, and damping ratio of 0.7, find out the damping coefficient and also the
displacement of the proof mass relative to the case to measure the acceleration of
10g.
[10]
7. (a) A triangular-shaped RLG has a side length of 10 cm and operates with He-Ne
gas laser having a wavelength of 0.63 µm. Calculate the frequency shift to detect
0.01◦ /h rotation rate and also the scale factor.
(b) Consider a circular interferometer with the angular velocity of Ω = 300 deg/s.
The optical path difference between beams travelling in the direction of rotation
and opposite to the direction of rotation is obtained to be 0.822 m. Calculate
the change in the difference of transit time of both the beams if the radius of the
interferometer is 2 km.
[10]
8. A square-shaped RLG and an equilateral triangle shaped RLG have same ideal scale
factor denoted by S. If the radius of equivalent circular RLG corresponding to S is
given by R, then prove that the ratio of areas enclosed
√ by circular, square-shaped and
π 3 3
triangular RLG respectively is given by : 1 : [10]
4 4
9. LORAN navigational transmitters A, B, C and D are located at (−100, 0), (100, 0),
(0, −150), and (0, 150), respectively. A navigator P on a ship listens to pair (A, B) of
transmitters and computes the difference of the distance to be 120 miles. Similarly,
with the pair (C, D) the computed difference in the distance is 80 miles. Determine the
position of the ship if it is assumed to lie in the second quadrant. [10]
10. Among all the satellites visible to a receiver, two possible combinations A and B are
selected. HA represents a visibility matrix for set A combinations and HB represents
the visibility matrix for another satellite combination set B. If
   
0 0.996 0.087 1 0 0.98 0.119 1
 0.863 −0.498 0.087 1  0.863 −0.498 0.087 1
HA =  −0.8630 −0.498 0.087 1 and HB = −0.8630 −0.498 0.087 1
  

0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
(a) Calculate covariance matrices for HA and HB .
(b) Calculate the values of GDOP, PDOP, HDOP, VDOP, TDOP and MDOP for both
the satellite combinations.
(c) Depending on the values calculated in part (b), select the configuration of satellites
that gives the most accurate calculation of 3D position. Note that the noise level
in all the channels is the same.
[10]

AE 305/305M/717 End