Investigation of Attitude and Translational Rate Command Control Laws for a Ship-based Helicopter
Open Access
Author:
Ripley, Rebecca Helen
Area of Honors:
Electrical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Joseph Francis Horn, Thesis Supervisor John Douglas Mitchell, Thesis Honors Advisor Constantino Manuel Lagoa, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
Attitude Command Translational Rate Command Helicopter Control Laws Ship-Based Operations
Abstract:
One of the most difficult tasks for any rotorcraft pilot to perform is landing the aircraft on a ship deck. There are numerous effects that the pilot needs to be aware of and quickly correct for. Those effects include air wake turbulence, a moving ship deck, and landing in such a small and potentially cluttered area. Much research has been to done to identify ways to widen the envelope of conditions under which pilots can safely perform ship deck landings and other ship-based operations. This paper looks at Translation Rate Command (TRC) control techniques to alleviate some of the pilot workload associated with ship-based operations. TRC time and frequency responses are compared to those found in the Attitude Command, for a controller with inner-loop Attitude Command and Outer-loop TRC. Results show that there is a significant trade-off between disturbance rejection and inner-loop stability margins; however, adding the TRC outer-loop does not degrade these margins. The TRC controller provides high levels of disturbance rejection while still maintaining adequate stability margins, and provides tighter responses than Attitude Command.
