Autonomous Control Modes and Optimized Path Guidance for Shipboard Landing in High Sea States
Abstract
Landing a rotorcraft on a moving ship deck and under the influence of the unsteady ship airwake is extremely challenging. In high sea states, gusty conditions, and a degraded visual environment, workload during the landing task begins to approach the limits of a human pilots capability. It is a similarly demanding task for shipboard launch and recovery of a VTOL UAV. There is a clear need for additional levels of stability and control augmentation and, ultimately, fully autonomous landing (possibly with manual pilot control as a back-up mode for piloted flight). There is also a clear need for advanced flight controls to expand the operational conditions in which safe landings for both manned and unmanned rotorcraft can be performed. For piloted rotorcraft, the current piloting strategies do not even make use of the available couplers and autopilot systems during landing operations. One of the reasons is that, as the deck pitches and rolls in high sea states, the pilot must maneuver aggressively to perform a station-keeping task over the landing spot. The required maneuvering can easily saturate an autopilot that uses a rate limited trim system. For fly-by-wire aircraft, there is evidence that the pilot would simply over-compensate and negate the effectiveness of a translation rate command/position hold control mode. In addition, the pilots can easily over-torque the rotorcraft, especially if they attempt to match the vertical motion of the deck.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 15, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1034177
Entities
People
- Chengjian He
- Joseph F. Horn
- Sean Roark
Organizations
- Pennsylvania State University