Robust performance tailoring and tuning is a design methodology developed for high-performance, high-risk missions, such as NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF). It improves the level of mission confidence obtainable in the absence of a fully integrated system test prior to launch. If uncertainty is high and performance requirements are difficult to meet, existing robust design techniques can not always guarantee performance. Therefore, robust design is extended to include tuning elements that compensate for performance deviations due to parametric modeling uncertainty after the structure is built. In its early stages, the design is tailored for performance, robustness and tuneability. The incorporation of carefully chosen tuning elements guarantees that, once built, the structure will be tuneable to bring performance within requirements. In this paper we apply the dynamic tailoring and tuning methodologies to an integrated model of a structurally-connected TPF interferometer. The problem of interferometer design is posed in a robust design framework and appropriate tuning parameters such as reaction wheel isolator corner frequency and primary mirror support design are identified. Robust performance tailoring with tuning is applied to the problem using structural optimization to obtain a design that manages uncertainty through robustness and tuning authority and achieves a superior design to those generated with dynamic tailoring and robust design alone.

Date Published: 23 June 2006
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 6271, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy II, 62710U (23 June 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.672664

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6271:
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy II
Martin J. Cullum; George Z. Angeli, Editor(s)