The overarching objective of the Adaptive Digital Automated Pilotage Technology (ADAPT™) Flight Control Technology Demonstration Program is to develop and demonstrate a cohesive flight control software package designed to achieve revolutionary improvements in safety/survivability, performance, and affordability for US military aircraft. Ultimately this technology will be fully transferrable to commercial rotorcraft. ADAPT™ exploits the inherent redundancy of control effectors present in advanced VTOL platforms and modified legacy fleet rotorcraft. The program will utilize flight simulation models and simulators, scaled demonstrator unmanned flight vehicles, and a full-scale flight test vehicle to demonstrate ADAPT™ technology. ADAPT™ is an adaptive flight control technology that is designed to automatically allocate control commands between effectors to respond to aircraft damage or to optimize the control configuration of the aircraft for increased performance, maneuverability, reduced vibration or fatigue loads, or for a weighted combination of these attributes. There are three main components of ADAPT™:
- Damage Tolerant Control (DTC), Fly to Optimal (FTO), and Vehicle Maneuvering Optimization (VMO). Damage Tolerant Control (DTC) algorithms are designed to automatically reallocate effector function to allow for continued safe flight in degraded mode or to conduct an emergency landing with much higher probability of survival.
- Fly To Optimal (FTO) algorithms are designed to automatically select the optimal combinations of control effectors that will maximize aircraft performance based on a selected objective or weighted combination of objectives.
- Vehicle Maneuvering Optimization (VMO) algorithms are designed to maximize aircraft performance and minimize exceedance of aircraft limits during the conduct of maneuvering flight by automatically selecting the optimum combination of control effector settings.
Currently, PiAC has completed a multitude of piloted simulation events at Penn State University at University Park, PA. Two remotely controlled-scaled-demonstrators are being used to showcase ADAPT™ functionality outside the piloted simulation environment. The X49A compound rotorcraft test bed operated by PiAC will serve as the full-scale flight demonstration aircraft flight testing.
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