Development and Flight Testing of Flight Control Laws for Autonomous Operations Research on the RASCAL JUH-60A

摘要

Development, integration, and flight-testing of an autonomous flight control system on a JUH-60A research helicopter are described. Flight test results include control law validation, in the form of open and closed-loop frequency responses, and performance characteristics. The latter are evaluated using a combination of ADS-33E Mission Task Elements, path error measurements, and actuator usage. The flight data are used to assess the control law limits on a full-authority system and on a limited partial-authority system. In addition, the measured path-error performance data are used to configure and assess obstacle-field navigation algorithms in simulation.