Reachability Analysis for Multi-Rotor UAM Vehicles Based on Force and Moment Envelopes

Abstract

Verbatim from Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

To date, there are hundreds of concepts for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles under development. Most of these vehicles are over-actuated, meaning there are more control effectors than there are forces and moments to be controlled. Such vehicles look and operate differently from fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters for which the FAA and other regulatory agencies have certification standards. In order to certify these UAM concepts, their handling qualities need to be evaluated, which is often done through a combination of piloted simulation and flight testing. Because flight testing radically new vehicle concepts carries a lot of risk and is very time consuming, having a method to automatically predict a vehicle’s maneuvering capabilities as a function of its state is necessary. This research makes use of a methodology to predict the required forces, moments, and vehicle states to fly a given trajectory. Envelopes of attainable forces and moments as a function of these required vehicle states throughout the trajectory are then generated. These predictions of required and attainable forces and moments are then compared to determine whether a vehicle has sufficient control power to fly the trajectory. Such a method could increase the safety of flight test programs as well as reduce the number of flight tests required. It could also provide test pilots with a visual representation of a vehicle’s available control margin while in flight to help them avoid potentially uncontrollable situations.

Authors

• Spier, Louis Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Collins, Kyle Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Keywords

• Flight Dynamics
• eVTOL
• UAM
• Urban Air Mobility
• Flight Envelope
• Flight Test
• Certification
• FAA
• Aeronautical Vehicles
• Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics