Evaluation of Novel Concepts for Takeover Control using Electronically Coupled Sidesticks

Helicopter accident investigation reports indicate that takeover control maneuvers in low level flight may lead to loss-of-control. In this paper, novel methods for control transfer are implemented to address this safety issue. Through the use of active inceptor systems, the traditional mechanical linkage between pilot and copilot inceptors can be emulated using priority functions, which act to actively decouple inceptors in one control station. Takeover control maneuvers are tested in a dual pilot helicopter simulation environment to evaluate two inceptor decoupling methods, namely a priority pushbutton (manual) and a priority force threshold (automatic). Results indicate that the takeover maneuvers were successfully performed in low level flight without over control when using both priority functions. The priority functions led to a workload reduction when compared to a benchmark configuration without inceptor decoupling. Positive ratings in usefulness and satisfaction scales indicate pilot acceptance of the priority functions tested.