Optimization and Flight Test Results of Modern Control Laws for the UH-60 Black Hawk

摘要

Modern control laws (MCLAWS-2) were developed to provide an attitude-command/attitude-hold response type for the UH-60, and thereby afford improved handling-qualities for near-Earth operation in night and poor weather. The MCLAWS-2 were implemented and evaluated in an EH-60L helicopter. Central to addressing the significant resource and technical challenges of this project was the extensive use of a modern integrated toolset. System identification methods provided an accurate flight-identified aircraft response model, and allowed the efficient isolation of discrepancies in the block diagram-based simulation model. Additional key tools were real-time rapid prototyping and a well-designed picture-to-code process. Control laws were tuned to achieve the maximum design margin relative to handling-qualities and control system performance requirements. The optimized design was seen to be robust to uncertainties in the identified physical parameters. A flight test evaluation by three test pilots showed significant benefits of the optimized design compared to the EH-60L standard flight control configuration.