Micro Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft

Flight research and validation in a relevant environment is a critical element in the maturation of aeronautics technology. Developing, instrumenting, and validating test vehicles to support flight research is a cost and time intensive process and typically reserved for late-stage research and development. Given the complexity of autonomous systems and the wide range of target vehicles and environments they will be operated within, it is cost and time prohibitive to flight validate all of these scenarios using target platforms. Model Following Algorithms (MFA) can enable a surrogate research aircraft to simulate the dynamics of target aircraft through a control augmentation process. Multiple target vehicles can be simulated in this process, enabling rapid and low-cost flight validation of software and autonomy algorithms and promoting early-stage flight research. The X-62 Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA) demonstrated the value of this approach using a F-16 surrogate vehicle. So far, autonomy tests on small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) surrogate platforms have all used either waypoint or Heading-Speed-Altitude (HSA) commands. Lower-Level Controls (LLC) are necessary to test more performant and complex autonomy algorithms, including Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) flight and Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM). While LLC interfaces on X-62 VISTA enable acceleration and rate command inputs to the F-16, no such interface exists for sUAS surrogate vehicles. Our team, comprised of Bolder Flight Systems Inc. (BFS), Systems Technology Inc. (STI), and Thorondor LLC, proposes to develop, test, and validate a micro Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (uVISTA); a FLight Control System (FLCS) architecture that will enable a sUAS surrogate vehicle to use MFA to simulate the state dynamics and responses of a target vehicle. uVISTA will define an LLC interface and provide envelope protection and automated recovery from state-limit exceedance. uVISTA will be integrated with the Carbon Cub and Renegade sUAS. Accurate models of these platforms will be developed and the MFA demonstrated using LLC from an autonomy processor. Envelope protection and automated recovery from state limit exceedance will also be demonstrated in flight. Both aircraft will be delivered upon completion of the period of performance along with the integrated uVISTA FLCS; flight data and models; integration and operation manuals; and interim and final reports.