LFA3082-1 Numerical Analysis

Víctor Armando Canales Lima 162328

05/10/2020

ACTIVITY 3.2 APPLIED PROBLEMS

Propose a problem whose solution requires the use of the techniques discussed.
Finding the roots of a polynomial is very important in the analysis of any phenomena, usually it gives a lot of
information about the function behaviour, furthermore, they are necessary in order to perform more complex
computations such as differential equations, integrodifferential equations and transformations. As an example,
almost any kind of system is said to be in equilibrium when the function that describes the systems behaviour
equals zero, this is very important in a lot of science fields of study, the following problem shows it.

Problem statement
Engineers are programming the flight system of a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), for this UAV to flight without
falling, it is necessary that the flight system can constantly update the ailerons angle to stabilize the system.
Through study and modelling, the flight direction for the UAV, the estimated function can be mapped through as
a function of ailerons angle as follows:

𝑓(𝜃) = 0.8 𝜃 6 + 0.25 𝜃 9 + 0.0002 𝜃 4 − 7.212 𝜃 3 + 1.2 𝜃 − 7.17

Engineers need to know in which angle the ailerons will keep the UAV in the correct
direction. According to the frame of reference, the angle needs to be positive and
because of basic lift and aerodynamic laws, they know the angle cannot be greater
than 10. What is the perfect angle for the UAV’s flight?

Solution
Thanks to numerical methods, the root of this complex polynomial function can be
computed fast and efficiently, actually, in a more realistic environment, the sensors of
the UAV could update an approximation of the function given the current conditions
of the flight, and roots could be constantly updated.

It is known that the interval where the root should be is [0,10], a good approximation
would be with a tolerance of 1E-4. If we apply the theorem, we will see that:

𝑓(0) ∗ 𝑓(𝑏) = −1798184338.9311001 < 0 ∴ 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑡

According to the theory, the number of iterations needed to find a root would be:
𝑏−𝑎 10 − 0
𝑛 = log 2 | | = log 2 | −4 | ≈ 17
𝜀 10
According to this, the best angle would be ≈ 1.6399°

Universidad De Las Américas Puebla

Computer Systems Engineering 1
LFA3082-1 Numerical Analysis
Víctor Armando Canales Lima 162328
05/10/2020

Conclusions
Numerical methods are the basis of high performance computing, they help us solve problems that would take
too long to be solved with other approaches, without them, computers would not be able to do more complex
operations than basic elementary school calculators. Finding roots of polynomials might be just a little exercise,
but it helps solve a lot of systems and describe them, and it is the basis for solving more complex operations that
will help when describing and modelling more complex systems.

Universidad De Las Américas Puebla

Computer Systems Engineering 2