Application of Virtual Prototyping and Intelligent Systems Technology to Rotocraft Test & Evaluation

Recent breakthroughs in virtual prototyping of flight vehicles Coupled with modern methods of Intelligent systems technology provide an opportunity to apply powerful new software tools to the design and testing of both flight vehicles and their associated training devices. Advanced Rotorcraft Technology, Inc. (ART) has developed FLIGHTLAB, a prototyping tool for flight dynamics modeling. ART is currently completing a Phase 11 SBIR that has focused on adding extensive flight test support capability to FLIGHTLAB, including the modeling of standard Navy flight test scenarios, the reduction of the resulting data into standardized plot formats and the addition of an integral data base management system to catalog simulation configuration with the corresponding test results, Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. (SHAI) is currently completing a Phase 11 SBIR involving the development of an automated flight test planning program that uses intelligent systems technology to extract baseline information from a library of flight test plans and then guides the user systematically through the test plan development, making extensive use of existing information to facilitate and standardize the process. This proposal addresses the enhancement and integration of FLIGHTLAB's virtual prototyping and virtual test and evaluation capabilities and SHAI's Automated Flight Test Engineering System to produce the Rotorcraft Intelligent Test and Evaluation (RITE) system. The development of an intelligent software system that facilitates the efficient modification of both flight control and simulation software to achieve desired objectives and supports configuration management of the software throughout the test and evaluation process will have a major impact on the rotorcraft test and evaluation community.