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

Abstract

Ship air-wake modeling is a critical task needed to support the design and validation of algorithms that can assist a helicopter’s pilot during shipboard launch and recovery operations. In fact, these operations are often carried out in challenging conditions and impose a significant workload on the pilot. In this framework, the paper presents an air-wake model applicable for flight mechanics analyses and real-time simulations. The definition of the model is based on system identification methodologies applied to wind-tunnel experimental data. The main innovation of the approach consists of the definition of a modular structure of the model that allows setting up a multistep identification strategy and exploiting the most suitable technique for the estimation of each set of the model’s parameters. The validation of the obtained model highlighted a good capability to reproduce the air-wake flowfield in several flow conditions. The model was applied to test trajectory generation and tracking algorithms for helicopter automatic takeoff and landing on a ship deck.