Automatic Flight Control Modes for Pilot Assistance During Helicopter Shipboard Operations

The inherent complexities of maritime environments make the helicopter shipboard operations exceptionally demanding to the pilots. This paper presents current research on development of a combination of different advanced control modes to automatize different parts of a ship deck landing maneuver in the maritime simulation environments of both DLR (German Aerospace Center) and ONERA (The French Aerospace Lab). The proposed advanced control modes involve ship relative Velocity Hold and Position Hold capabilities for pilot assistance and further enhancing the safety levels of the shipboard operations. Control augmentation is based on a model following control system featuring a translational rate command at DLR, however at ONERA a feedforward control strategy is used. The paper describes the simulation setup of a helicopter-ship dynamic interface, test methodologies and evaluation methods at both DLR and ONERA. Simulation results demonstrate an evaluation and comparison of the implemented control augmentation for different helicopter types namely, an EC135 at DLR and an EC225 at ONERA for shipboard operations.