An Overall Evaluation Toolchain for Assessing Helicopter Ship Deck Landings

Abstract

An overall evaluation toolchain is implemented for assessing the helicopter ship deck landings. The toolchain evaluates various touchdown conditions like position, velocity and attitude errors between the ship deck and the helicopter. It also displays additional evaluation parameters for the entire approach. A preliminary pilot study was performed in a simulator within a complete maritime scenario design. The maritime simulation environment includes a nonlinear helicopter flight model with a model-based flight control system, a ship dynamic model with the simulated turbulent air wake and realistic wave and water effects. For a subjective assessment of the ship deck landings, qualitative pilot ratings using different rating scales were recorded during the pilot study. Simulation results show that the toolchain is well suited for assessing helicopter ship deck landing performance in a simulation environment.