RCOTools Upgrades: Scalable Comprehensive Rotorcraft Design and Coupled Optimization

This paper presents updates to The Rotorcraft Optimization Tools (RCOTools) package to streamline iterative rotorcraft comprehensive design. The work is presented in three parts. Part I. a brief introduction to our simplified API is shown, in addition to a new mission profile dashboard. Part II. demonstrates high-throughput using the embarrassingly parallel paradigm to produce large-scale datasets structured by simple design of experiments (DOE) as shown by our discussion on urban air mobility (UAM) emission minimization. Such datasets provide a necessary component for rapid database generation and supervised machine learning. Part III. the API is used to couple rotor performance and sizing optimization. A simple technique for ultra-fast hover calibration is given, as well as possible applications for neural network modeling in comprehensive design. These enhancements accelerate design workflows and enable data-driven approaches for next-generation urban air mobility and planetary rotorcraft concepts.