A helicopter auto-pilot or autonomous flight system can include an autorotation controller configured to adjust a desired trajectory based on a predicted time to ground impact value continuously calculated in response to a failure event. A multi-phase approach can be used in which the calculations for adjusting the desired trajectory depend on the time to ground impact value. In one case, the phases include steady state descent, flare, and touchdown. Flare descent can be fully automated by calculating the time needed to slow the helicopter before entering a landing phase and generating an altitude trajectory (along with control inputs for the helicopter) that will cause the vehicle to land at an appropriate time (the current time plus a prescribed time to impact).
HELICOPTER AUTOROTATION CONTROLLER
2018-05-10
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
A Fuzzy Logic-Based Controller for Helicopter Autorotation
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