INTEGRATED FIRE AND FLIGHT CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

THE INTEGRATED FIRE AND FLIGHT CONTROL (IFFC) SYSTEM CONCEPT EMBODIES THE TOTAL AIRFRAME-DIRECTOR-WEAPON OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS. BY THIS IS MEANT THAT THE DECENTRALIZED AND SOMEWHAT AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OF THE ROTORCRAFT COMBAT SYSTEMS ARE COORDINATED BY A CENTRAL AUTOMATIC CONTROL ELEMENT WHICH, GIVEN SUITABLE OPTIMAL CRITERIA, HAS THE POTENTIAL OF ENHANCING WEAPON DELIVERY ACCURACY WHILE AT THE SAME DIME REDUCING PILOT WORKLOAD. THIS ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE COMBINING OF SEVERAL CONTROL FUNCTIONS WHICH WOULD NORMALLY BE COORDINATED BY THE PILOT, AND THE SHARING OF SUBSYSTEM INFORMATION IN THE REAL-TIME CONTROL OF ALL ROTORCRAFT SUBSYSTEMS. THUS THE IFFC CAN, UPON SELECTION BY THE PILOT, ACT AS AN ASSISTANT IN MAINTAINING ROTORCRAFT STABILITY AND CONTROL WHILE THE PILOT DIVERTS ATTENTION TO THE FIRE CONTROL SOLUTION WITHOUT ADVERSE IMPACT ON FLIGHT CONTROL. THE IFFC SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE IS DEFINED BY THE LINEAR DYNAMIC MODEL OF THE ROTORCRAFT, FIRE CONTROL DIRECTOR, LAUNCHER AND WEAPON DYNAMICS. A MODER MULTIVARIABLE SYNTHESIS TECHNIQUE, BASED ON FREQUENCY DOMAIN SENSITIVITY MINIMIZATION OF A SUITABLE INDUCED NORM, SUCH H(OO) CONTROL, ARE USED TO DESIGN THE INTEGRATED FLIGHT CONTROL LAWS TO IMPROVE WEAPON DELIVERY ACCURACY WHILE MAINTAINING ROTORCRAFT HANDLING QUALITIES.