A Networked Simulation Environment for Dynamic Interface Flight Control Design and Evaluation

Current Navy-sponsored work on advanced rotorcraft flight control concepts, supporting Dynamic Interface (DI) operations of aircraft launch and recovery from aviation-capable ships, is investigating the use both rotor state feedback and ship motion parameters for improved handling characteristics and disturbance suppression. Both parameter sets can provide additional feedback to a helicopter's flight control system, to help mitigate the effects of a turbulent ship airwake and ship deck motion on the safety of operations for both manned and unmanned rotary-wing vehicles. Validation of the resulting design will first be performed through detailed simulation, which includes: (1) a full-span free wake analysis for the rotor aeromechanical response; (2) a ship airwake model based on validated unsteady CFD calculations; (3) a ship motion profile that uses the Navy's representation of ship motion spectra for the specific hull shape; and (4) a PC-based pilot station that can represent the viewpoint of any participant within the DI environment in real-time. The paper will motivate the need for development of the simulation toolset as a networked system, and then described the components in use in the control law design process.