Transactions of Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics
Issue 2,2026 Table of Contents
2026(2):145-157.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.001
Abstract:
A novel decentralized control approach for unmanned aerial vehicles （UAVs） based on emergent collective behavior identified in starling flocks is proposed in this paper. With the self-organizing principle of starling flocking separation， alignment and cohesion behaviors， a fully distributed leaderless control is designed based on local interaction only. It is augmented by an adaptive switching event-triggered communication protocol， a novelty which greatly reduces the communication load， yet maintains swarming cohesion and formation stability rigorously. Via the Lyapunov stability theory， the formation error can converge to a boundary range， robustness to disturbances and partial communication burden. Ultimately， the numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
A novel decentralized control approach for unmanned aerial vehicles （UAVs） based on emergent collective behavior identified in starling flocks is proposed in this paper. With the self-organizing principle of starling flocking separation， alignment and cohesion behaviors， a fully distributed leaderless control is designed based on local interaction only. It is augmented by an adaptive switching event-triggered communication protocol， a novelty which greatly reduces the communication load， yet maintains swarming cohesion and formation stability rigorously. Via the Lyapunov stability theory， the formation error can converge to a boundary range， robustness to disturbances and partial communication burden. Ultimately， the numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
2026(2):158-186.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.002
Abstract:
With growing urban congestion， urban air mobility （UAM）， which brings urban mobility into a third dimension for more efficient urban travel， has become a global research focus today. To provide a detailed summary of the development status and critical issues for UAM， this paper conducts bibliometric analyses on relevant publications in the Web of Science database from 1993 to 2024 using visualization software， such as VOSviewer and CiteSpace. This study covers publication output， country collaboration networks， core institutions， co-citation analysis， high-frequency keywords， and thematic mapping. Together， these indicators outline the core scholarly development of the UAM field. The findings aim to help readers gain a clearer understanding of the current research landscape and identify promising directions for future exploration.
With growing urban congestion， urban air mobility （UAM）， which brings urban mobility into a third dimension for more efficient urban travel， has become a global research focus today. To provide a detailed summary of the development status and critical issues for UAM， this paper conducts bibliometric analyses on relevant publications in the Web of Science database from 1993 to 2024 using visualization software， such as VOSviewer and CiteSpace. This study covers publication output， country collaboration networks， core institutions， co-citation analysis， high-frequency keywords， and thematic mapping. Together， these indicators outline the core scholarly development of the UAM field. The findings aim to help readers gain a clearer understanding of the current research landscape and identify promising directions for future exploration.
2026(2):187-202.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.003
Abstract:
Precise detection of flight path deviations during the approach phase is critical for identifying operational risks and enhancing aviation safety. However， existing monitoring methods often face significant challenges in distinguishing between environmental signal distortions and operational handling errors due to the lack of high-fidelity physical reference models. To address these limitations， this study establishes an integrated simulation framework for required navigation performance （RNP） and instrument landing system （ILS） approaches by synthesizing quick access recorder （QAR） data with rigorous navigation modeling. A site-specific “digital twin” of Linfen Yaodu Airport is constructed， incorporating 3D trajectory reconstruction based on Mercator projection and Baro-VNAV logic， alongside an electromagnetic simulation of ILS signals utilizing antenna array and image theory to model multipath effects. Empirical validation demonstrates that the model accurately reproduces critical signal characteristics， including interference fringes and secondary glide slope lobes. Furthermore， quantitative regression analysis establishes a definitive linear correlation （R 2 > 0.98 ![]()
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Precise detection of flight path deviations during the approach phase is critical for identifying operational risks and enhancing aviation safety. However， existing monitoring methods often face significant challenges in distinguishing between environmental signal distortions and operational handling errors due to the lack of high-fidelity physical reference models. To address these limitations， this study establishes an integrated simulation framework for required navigation performance （RNP） and instrument landing system （ILS） approaches by synthesizing quick access recorder （QAR） data with rigorous navigation modeling. A site-specific “digital twin” of Linfen Yaodu Airport is constructed， incorporating 3D trajectory reconstruction based on Mercator projection and Baro-VNAV logic， alongside an electromagnetic simulation of ILS signals utilizing antenna array and image theory to model multipath effects. Empirical validation demonstrates that the model accurately reproduces critical signal characteristics， including interference fringes and secondary glide slope lobes. Furthermore， quantitative regression analysis establishes a definitive linear correlation （
2026(2):203-224.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.004
Abstract:
A tripartite evolutionary game model of enterprise， air traffic control （ATC） and passengers in an air-rail intermodal transport （ARIT） system was developed and investigated. The optimal interaction among enterprise， ATC and passengers was explored based on the congestion charging mechanism， as presented in terms of the payoffs and decision-making behaviors of three participants. Payoff matrices were established for three game players， wherein fare， mileage cost， en-route charge and generalized travel cost were taken into consideration. After that， the replicated dynamic equations were derived and employed to analyze the reliability of the proposed model and the dynamic behaviors of each game player under initial conditions. Eventually， the Beijing-Shanghai， Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Kunming corridors were used as practical cases to clarify the impact of key factors （e.g.， distance， en-route charge and passenger sharing ratio） on the evolutionary trend and final strategy. The results showed that three players tend to choose the strategy which is always profitable. The enterprises would choose to introduce the ARIT strategy in medium-distance route， but not in short- and long-distance route， ATC chose to implement the congestion charging strategy， and passengers preferred the ARIT strategy. In addition， the final strategies were affected by any changes in key factors， and enterprises were more sensitive and likely to introduce the ARIT strategy out of individual interest.
A tripartite evolutionary game model of enterprise， air traffic control （ATC） and passengers in an air-rail intermodal transport （ARIT） system was developed and investigated. The optimal interaction among enterprise， ATC and passengers was explored based on the congestion charging mechanism， as presented in terms of the payoffs and decision-making behaviors of three participants. Payoff matrices were established for three game players， wherein fare， mileage cost， en-route charge and generalized travel cost were taken into consideration. After that， the replicated dynamic equations were derived and employed to analyze the reliability of the proposed model and the dynamic behaviors of each game player under initial conditions. Eventually， the Beijing-Shanghai， Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Kunming corridors were used as practical cases to clarify the impact of key factors （e.g.， distance， en-route charge and passenger sharing ratio） on the evolutionary trend and final strategy. The results showed that three players tend to choose the strategy which is always profitable. The enterprises would choose to introduce the ARIT strategy in medium-distance route， but not in short- and long-distance route， ATC chose to implement the congestion charging strategy， and passengers preferred the ARIT strategy. In addition， the final strategies were affected by any changes in key factors， and enterprises were more sensitive and likely to introduce the ARIT strategy out of individual interest.
2026(2):225-237.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.005
Abstract:
To enhance the overall performance of multiple aerial manipulators under complex lumped disturbances， a nonsingular terminal sliding mode （NTSM） controller based on time-delay estimation （TDE） and deviation coupling control （DCC） is proposed. The stability of the controller is proven using the Lyapunov stability theory. Comparative experiments are conducted using a system of multiple aerial manipulators. The results demonstrate that， compared with a PID controller based on TDE， the proposed controller reduces the integral of absolute error （IAE）， integral of time-weighted absolute error （ITAE）， and integral of squared error （ISE） by at least 45.8%， 44.1%， and 66.5% respectively， thereby achieving superior overall control performance.
To enhance the overall performance of multiple aerial manipulators under complex lumped disturbances， a nonsingular terminal sliding mode （NTSM） controller based on time-delay estimation （TDE） and deviation coupling control （DCC） is proposed. The stability of the controller is proven using the Lyapunov stability theory. Comparative experiments are conducted using a system of multiple aerial manipulators. The results demonstrate that， compared with a PID controller based on TDE， the proposed controller reduces the integral of absolute error （IAE）， integral of time-weighted absolute error （ITAE）， and integral of squared error （ISE） by at least 45.8%， 44.1%， and 66.5% respectively， thereby achieving superior overall control performance.
6 Analysis of Sea-Based Landing Dynamics of Reusable Landing Vehicle Considering Mechanism Flexibility
2026(2):238-250.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.006
Abstract:
Vertical landing and recovery of a launch vehicle at sea can further reduce the launch cost of commercial space-flight， so this paper investigates the issue of reusable launch vehicle landing at sea. A vehicle landing dynamics model considering mechanism flexibility is established， and vehicle drop tests under various operating conditions are conducted. By comparing the vehicle drop test， the simulations of the dynamics model are consistent with test results， and the vehicle landing dynamics model considering the landing mechanism flexibility can simulate the vertical landing process of the vehicle more effectively than the rigid body dynamics model， which is more meaningful to guide the design of the reusable vehicle landing mechanism. Based on the vehicle landing dynamics model， a deck motion model and wind disturbance model are added to simulate the vehicle vertical landing dynamics at sea. The simulation results show that the sea landing causes the peak acceleration response of the vehicle， the main strut load and the buffer compression stroke to become larger， and there is a significant decrease in the landing stability of the vehicle.
Vertical landing and recovery of a launch vehicle at sea can further reduce the launch cost of commercial space-flight， so this paper investigates the issue of reusable launch vehicle landing at sea. A vehicle landing dynamics model considering mechanism flexibility is established， and vehicle drop tests under various operating conditions are conducted. By comparing the vehicle drop test， the simulations of the dynamics model are consistent with test results， and the vehicle landing dynamics model considering the landing mechanism flexibility can simulate the vertical landing process of the vehicle more effectively than the rigid body dynamics model， which is more meaningful to guide the design of the reusable vehicle landing mechanism. Based on the vehicle landing dynamics model， a deck motion model and wind disturbance model are added to simulate the vehicle vertical landing dynamics at sea. The simulation results show that the sea landing causes the peak acceleration response of the vehicle， the main strut load and the buffer compression stroke to become larger， and there is a significant decrease in the landing stability of the vehicle.
2026(2):251-274.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.007
Abstract:
Modular design of complex engineering systems is a universal technology for rapid system design in the modern industrial field. Generating assembly schemes for modular engineering systems in industrial production is the core of achieving automation in system design. Traditional system design methods based on human experience suffer from low efficiency and poor adaptability. To enable the automatic assembly of modules for engineering systems， the performance matching and correlation between modules need to be accurately identified. Currently， general large language models， with their strong language analysis capabilities， have been applied to multiple industries. However， limited by data barriers in specific industrial field， their application in assembly of system modules is rare. Therefore， constructing high-quality domain data， fine-tuning professional large language models， and developing domain frameworks for automatic design of modular system constitute an important research direction to be explored at present. Based on the Qwen2.5 open-source large model， we utilize industrial system knowledge to construct a component library and propose a large language model for design of complex industrial system （DCI-LLM）. Through the proposed low-rank adaptation （LoRA）-freeze-based “local-collaborative” fine-tuning method which combines local module and global knowledge of the system， DCI-LLM automatically generates system composition schemes and produces the related engineering drawings given system design requirements. We use the scheme design of heating systems as an example to verify the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Experimental results show that the fine-tuned DCI-LLM model achieves accuracy rates of 93.4% and 89.3% in answering questions about module knowledge and global knowledge， respectively. Moreover， scores from professional engineers indicate that DCI-LLM has practical application potential in scheme design of complex modular systems. Our work demonstrates that LLMs have significant application prospects in the field of automatic scheme design for complex industrial systems.
Modular design of complex engineering systems is a universal technology for rapid system design in the modern industrial field. Generating assembly schemes for modular engineering systems in industrial production is the core of achieving automation in system design. Traditional system design methods based on human experience suffer from low efficiency and poor adaptability. To enable the automatic assembly of modules for engineering systems， the performance matching and correlation between modules need to be accurately identified. Currently， general large language models， with their strong language analysis capabilities， have been applied to multiple industries. However， limited by data barriers in specific industrial field， their application in assembly of system modules is rare. Therefore， constructing high-quality domain data， fine-tuning professional large language models， and developing domain frameworks for automatic design of modular system constitute an important research direction to be explored at present. Based on the Qwen2.5 open-source large model， we utilize industrial system knowledge to construct a component library and propose a large language model for design of complex industrial system （DCI-LLM）. Through the proposed low-rank adaptation （LoRA）-freeze-based “local-collaborative” fine-tuning method which combines local module and global knowledge of the system， DCI-LLM automatically generates system composition schemes and produces the related engineering drawings given system design requirements. We use the scheme design of heating systems as an example to verify the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Experimental results show that the fine-tuned DCI-LLM model achieves accuracy rates of 93.4% and 89.3% in answering questions about module knowledge and global knowledge， respectively. Moreover， scores from professional engineers indicate that DCI-LLM has practical application potential in scheme design of complex modular systems. Our work demonstrates that LLMs have significant application prospects in the field of automatic scheme design for complex industrial systems.
2026(2):275-285.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.008
Abstract:
Ice accretion on transmission lines poses a severe threat to the safety of power grids. To achieve early icing warning and online ice thickness measurement， it is necessary to consider the effect of the rough ice layer on ultrasonic echo signals during the early icing stage. This study applied a sinusoidal equivalent roughness model to simplify the ice layer profile， and used PZFlex to numerically analyze the effects of the rough structure scale on the ultrasonic pulse-echo signals. The reflection coefficient of the ice-air layer interface was introduced to characterize small-scale roughness. It is found that the attenuation of pulse-echo signals is dominant by the height of rough structure. As the roughness upper ice layer increases， the interface reflection coefficient gradually decreases. When the roughness exceeds the critical value， the reflection coefficient shows independent with roughness. As the threshold of reflection coefficient is set as 0.25， the effective measurement range of roughness under different center frequencies of excitation signal sources is determined. The relationship between the reflection coefficient and roughness upper ice layer is established， enabling the quantitative identification of rough ice layer using the ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. The research can provide a technical basis for the accurate measurement of ice thickness above transmission lines.
Ice accretion on transmission lines poses a severe threat to the safety of power grids. To achieve early icing warning and online ice thickness measurement， it is necessary to consider the effect of the rough ice layer on ultrasonic echo signals during the early icing stage. This study applied a sinusoidal equivalent roughness model to simplify the ice layer profile， and used PZFlex to numerically analyze the effects of the rough structure scale on the ultrasonic pulse-echo signals. The reflection coefficient of the ice-air layer interface was introduced to characterize small-scale roughness. It is found that the attenuation of pulse-echo signals is dominant by the height of rough structure. As the roughness upper ice layer increases， the interface reflection coefficient gradually decreases. When the roughness exceeds the critical value， the reflection coefficient shows independent with roughness. As the threshold of reflection coefficient is set as 0.25， the effective measurement range of roughness under different center frequencies of excitation signal sources is determined. The relationship between the reflection coefficient and roughness upper ice layer is established， enabling the quantitative identification of rough ice layer using the ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. The research can provide a technical basis for the accurate measurement of ice thickness above transmission lines.
2026(2):286-300.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.009
Abstract:
This study investigates a high-loaded axial compressor in which flow instabilities in the rotor and the stator occur almost concurrently. Under these conditions， conventional stability enhancement methods prove to be ineffective. The paper proposes a combined rotor-stator flow control technique. This study reveals that the flow field deterioration stems from combined flow blockage at the rotor tip region and the near-hub region of the stator. Research on flow control methods finds that self-recirculating casing treatment can effectively improve flow capacity in the rotor tip region， but simultaneously reduce flow capacity in the near-hub zone. This makes the hub flow field more susceptible to breakdown and ultimately triggers compressor instability. Thus， the self-recirculating casing treatment fails to enhance stall margin. By contrast， hub suction significantly improves the hub-region flow field. Yet without suppressing the rotor-tip flow blockage， it achieves limited stability enhancement. The integrated solution combining self-recirculating casing treatment with hub suction simultaneously addresses flow blockage at both the rotor tip and the stator near-hub regions. This combined flow control method delivers effective stability enhancement， achieving 6.78% increase in compressor stall margin.
This study investigates a high-loaded axial compressor in which flow instabilities in the rotor and the stator occur almost concurrently. Under these conditions， conventional stability enhancement methods prove to be ineffective. The paper proposes a combined rotor-stator flow control technique. This study reveals that the flow field deterioration stems from combined flow blockage at the rotor tip region and the near-hub region of the stator. Research on flow control methods finds that self-recirculating casing treatment can effectively improve flow capacity in the rotor tip region， but simultaneously reduce flow capacity in the near-hub zone. This makes the hub flow field more susceptible to breakdown and ultimately triggers compressor instability. Thus， the self-recirculating casing treatment fails to enhance stall margin. By contrast， hub suction significantly improves the hub-region flow field. Yet without suppressing the rotor-tip flow blockage， it achieves limited stability enhancement. The integrated solution combining self-recirculating casing treatment with hub suction simultaneously addresses flow blockage at both the rotor tip and the stator near-hub regions. This combined flow control method delivers effective stability enhancement， achieving 6.78% increase in compressor stall margin.
2026(2):301-316.
DOI: 10.16356/j.1005-1120.2026.02.010
Abstract:
Composite materials have been widely applied to aircraft structures due to their significant mechanical performance and lightweight. However， the shape difference， which induced by curing deformation， between the actual and theoretical composite panels leads to poor assembly accuracy. This paper proposes a shape control method with flexible tooling based on the finite element analysis and the adaptive genetic algorithm. The optimized displacement of every distributed shape adjusting end can be calculated to meet the requirements for shape conformity and structural healthy of the composite panel. The feasibility of the method has been verified via the shape optimization of aircraft wing-body fairing composite panel. Experimental results indicate that the shape conformity （within 0.3 mm） increases from 66.46% to 86.36% with the proposed optimized method. Moreover， the accuracy and efficiency for the composite panel assembly have been significantly improved. This study provides a new efficient and accuracy approach for the shape adjustment of composite panels during the assembly process.
Composite materials have been widely applied to aircraft structures due to their significant mechanical performance and lightweight. However， the shape difference， which induced by curing deformation， between the actual and theoretical composite panels leads to poor assembly accuracy. This paper proposes a shape control method with flexible tooling based on the finite element analysis and the adaptive genetic algorithm. The optimized displacement of every distributed shape adjusting end can be calculated to meet the requirements for shape conformity and structural healthy of the composite panel. The feasibility of the method has been verified via the shape optimization of aircraft wing-body fairing composite panel. Experimental results indicate that the shape conformity （within 0.3 mm） increases from 66.46% to 86.36% with the proposed optimized method. Moreover， the accuracy and efficiency for the composite panel assembly have been significantly improved. This study provides a new efficient and accuracy approach for the shape adjustment of composite panels during the assembly process.
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