Projektplan ALLFlight - Assisted Low Level Flight and Landing on Unprepared Landing Sites

Abstract

In ALLFlight (Assisted Low Level Flight and Landing on Unprepared Landing Sites) a pilot assistance system is developed which allows the intuitive operation of a manned helicopter from start to landing on unprepared landing sites and an intermediate low level flight in the presence of obstacles in a degraded visual environment. The objective of ALLFlight is the achievement of a safe and effective 24h all weather operation under above conditions by providing the pilot an optimal combination of assistance, consisting of advanced visual and tactile cueing and intelligent control augmentation, reducing his workload and increasing his situational and mission awareness. An extremum of this development is the fully automatic flight and landing of manned helicopter in a confined area. ALLFlight will provide curved and unsteady trajectories (in space and time) for all phases of operational helicopter flight (take-off, low level flight, landing) under all conditions (day, night, degraded vision). The trajectory generation incorporates the cognitive pilot's decision processes for trajectory planning in the described scenarios and bases on a highly accurate digital reproduction of the present helicopter surrounding world, including terrain and obstacle data. For this a pre-processed terrain data base is updated by actual sensors, making use of data fusion techniques (laser, radar, infrared). The latest handling qualities cognitions will drive the development and maturing of the relevant assistance systems (automation, visual and haptic support) and their coalescence to allow the pilot an intuitive following of the generated trajectories or surfaces in dependence of the present flight phase and environment condition. The integration of all systems and all relevant flight tests will be performed on the FHS research helicopter. Finally, the possible integration of the developed procedures into the regulations of air traffic management in controlled and uncontrolled areas of the European airspace will be investigated.