Piloted Simulation Evaluation of Damage Tolerant Control for a Tiltrotor

Advanced rotorcraft configurations currently being considered for Future Vertical Lift and Advanced Air Mobility applications typically feature redundant control effectors, which bring new opportunities for control design, including the ability to re-allocate control in response to failure or damage. This paper presents the design of damage tolerant control (DTC) for a generic utility-class tiltrotor using redistributed pseudo-inverse control allocation with axis prioritization. The damage tolerant control was integrated into full flight envelope control laws, and tested in a piloted simulation where pilots attempted to land the tiltrotor after damage in a cruise flight condition. Overall the results showed that damage tolerant control resulted in improved survivability ratings for the most severe damage cases. This work was done in support of the Adaptive Digital Automated Pilotage Technology (ADAPTTM) program which aims to develop a flight control software package to take advantage of redundant controls to improve safety, survivability, and performance for advanced vertical takeoff and landing capable aircraft.