Canadian Tech Shows One Solution in Bell 205

Advanced automatic control and landing systems for helicopters are on the horizon, as is the ability to evaluate entire UAV systems in an accurate, in-flight, yet safe, environment. At Canada's National Research Council (NRC) Institute for Aerospace Research researchers are addressing operational deficiencies through two major projects: Vertical Auto-Land Experimental Technologies (VALET), and Surrogate Unmanned Air Vehicle Experimental (SUAVE). VALET and SUAVE both exploit the fly-by-wire capability of NRC's Bell 205 airborne simulator.

 VALET allows the pilot to hand off control to an onboard, automated control system that performs the transition from forward to vertical flight and completes the entire landing phase. This is especially valuable in poor visual conditions and for shipboard helicopter operations. VALET will use RGPS, which gives the relative position of any two GPS stations (in this case the ship's position relative to the aircraft's), as well as a complete set of inertial data from the ship and aircraft. This information will be fed into a set of control algorithms that, through the flight control computer, will conduct the landing.

NRC Program Manager, Stephan Carignan, wrote, "The shipboard auto-land project has great potential to alleviate pilot workload during the landing task, increasing safety in a very dangerous flight regime. The technology could find its place as standard equipment on Canada's yet-to-be selected shipboard helicopter fleet."

SUAVE is taking the fly-by-wire capability of the 205 and using it to act like a UAV. SUAVE takes advantage of the higher levels of automated control contained on the NRC Bell 205 simulator to effectively provide a UAV platform for the evaluation of operational procedures, ground station design, sensor evaluations, coordination with air traffic control and a myriad of other UAV related issues. The aircraft will be in auto-flight mode and NRC will develop algorithms to achieve collision avoidance and, in follow-on projects, payload development. For collision avoidance, a mix of sensors is being considered, with the most likely candidate being radar-based. 

Autonomous control is possible while maintaining the presence of a safety pilot who can regain control of the aircraft, should a problem occur. This enables the evaluator of UAV systems to fly unrestricted in civilian airspace. "The advantage of using the Bell 205 to evaluate UAV control laws and systems is that with a pilot aboard we already satisfy the Transport Canada requirements for "see and avoid", one of the very things NRC is trying to automate," said Carignan.

(The National Research Council Institute for Aerospace Research is Canada's national aerospace laboratory.)

FMI: www.nrc.ca