Optimization of the speedskating technique for the straights

The Dutch speedskating federation expressed the need for a feedback system for elite long-track speedskaters that can aid them in finding the optimal technique for an individual athlete. To contribute to this goal, this research aims to develop an optimization workflow that can reproduce realistic steady state speedskating behaviour. This is...

Minimizing Environmental Impact of Cruise Flights using Meta-heuristic and Optimal Control Optimizations

Aviation has a negative impact on the environment. As the number of flights is expected to increase, the total environmental impact of aviation will continue to worsen. New solutions are required to mitigate these effects. Aircraft Trajectory Optimization For Environmental Impact (TOFEI) can help reduce the impact of aircraft pollutants while...

Aircraft Trajectory Optimization for European Flights: Assessment of the trajectory variability considering a trade-off between operating costs and climate impact

In order to reduce the climate impact induced by the aircraft industry, the variability between cost optimized and climate optimized flight trajectories was evaluated. This was done to establish how the climate impact reduction affects the operating costs and vice versa. To evaluate the climate impact of air traffic, a climate-chemistry model...

Modeling stochastic behavior of state variables within the optimization of departure procedures

Laser-Enhanced Solar Sailing: Modeling and Trajectory Optimization for Interplanetary Missions

When sunlight illuminates a body, a tiny pressure is exerted upon its surface due to the photons impacting on it. Such a principle forms the basis of solar sailing, in which the solar radiation pressure is used to accelerate highly reflective lightweight structures called solar sails. Similarly, a laser-enhanced solar sail is a solar sail in...

Vega Launchers' Trajectory Optimization Using a Pseudospectral Transcription

Given the current technological limitations, launch missions are extremely costly: rockets are huge, being about 100 times more massive than the payload, and most of the times expendable. The specific cost required to place a spacecraft in LEO is between 10 and 25 k€/kg. Consequently, trajectory optimization plays a major role in the design of a...