Evaluation of Helicopter Ship Deck Landing Control Laws in Piloted Simulations

This paper describes the implementation and the evaluation of newly designed helicopter ship deck landing control modes in a piloted simulation study. The ship deck landing modes are embedded in a model -following controller architecture. The employed control design is a complete model -following control system, which imposes the desired command model dynamics on the controlled helicopter. Different command types combined with various hold functions are implemented to make the task easier for the pilots. Three basic command modes and three advanced command modes, one without ship communication and two with ship communication, are implemented. A piloted simulation study was performed in a simulator to evaluate and compare the implemented control modes within a complete maritime scenario design. The evaluation of control modes is based on the success of helicopter ship deck landings which is assessed by a quantitative as well as a qualitative assessment. Simulation results demonstrate that the advanced command modes improved the task performance as well as reduced the pilot workload extensively in comparison to the basic command modes.