Ship Air-Wake Identification from Experimental Data for Automatic Deck Landing and Takeoff

What is it about?

Piloting a helicopter during take-off and landing on a ship moving at sea is very difficult because in addition to the usual tasks the pilot shall also manage the motion of the ship, deal with poor visibility conditions, and compensate for the disturbances on the trajectory of the helicopter due to the wake behind the ship. The guidance and control algorithms support the pilot in carrying out these critical maneuvers, reducing his workload and increasing flight safety. The design and verification of such algorithms often requires the availability of a simulation environment capable of modeling and reproducing all the phenomena experienced during flight. In this paper we define a model for the simulation of the effects of the ship's wake on the helicopter's trajectory, which as mentioned is one of the most important phenomena. The proposed model has an innovative formulation and was calibrated and verified using experimental data gathered through wind tunnel tests.

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