Helicopter Non Linear Flight Dynamic Modeling Using Vector Graph Theoretic Methods

As unmanned autonomous aerial vehicles prove themselves as vital components of future military and civilian systems, the performance envelope of such aircraft is expanding rapidly. With the pilot out of the cockpit, the vehicle is no longer limited by the physiological constraints of the human body. Extreme performance at or near the ßight envelopes will be the norm and not the exception. While the tools to model such inherently non-linear regimes exist today, very few of them are suitable for ßight simulation, particularly in real time. Further, the comprehensive analysis tools that do exist are non-trivial to learn and model with. Presented here is an application of a unified topologically based approach, using only a minimal set of generalized coordinates, and a minimal set of constraint equations. This paper outlines the application of the vector-graph theoretic method with object orientation applied to the nonlinear modeling of both the dynamic behavior and control mechanisms. The technique has been used to model an actual rotorcraft, using physical attribute data, and presents preliminary results for this model.