Common Flight Control System (C-FCS)

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Urban / Advanced Air Mobility (UAM/AAM) are rapidly emergent dual-use technology areas that will revolutionize Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial applications in areas such as delivering goods and supplies, disaster recovery and relief efforts, search and rescue, base security, air taxi services, and operations from small or unimproved areas . To enable the Air Force to fully utilize and remain at the forefront of this technology, we propose to research, develop, test, and commercialize a Common Flight Control System (C-FCS) for these vehicles. Networked sensors, actuators, and processors provide flexibility for integration on widely varying vehicle configurations and scalability from single-string to redundant systems. Fault-tolerant control laws automatically detect and enter reversionary modes if faults are encountered and a cascaded control law architecture will support fully-autonomous, remotely-piloted, and piloted operations. During Phase I, we identified a need for C-FCS within the Air Force. AFRL/RQ supports the warfighter by conducting flight research on a wide range of aircraft platforms to bring new technologies to the battlefield. C-FCS enables the AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate to rapidly mature technologies by leveraging a common flight control system across single-string, redundant, manned, and unmanned vehicles. C-FCS will integrate into the Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration, and Modeling (AFSIM) to rapidly conduct simulation and analysis. C-FCS will feature an open-architecture and enable rapid control law development in C++ or Simulink autocode. During Phase II, we will develop and manufacture a prototype of C-FCS and flight validate it on a scaled eVTOL vehicle with Beta Technologies. Systems Technology Inc. and The Pennsylvania State University will work with us to integrate fault tolerant control laws on C-FCS and evaluate handling qualities in nominal states and with simulated faults in a piloted simulation study. By enabling reliable and safe operations for all UAS and UAM/AAM, C-FCS will enable the Air Force to remain agile and rapidly adopt new airframe, motor, and power technologies as they become available. Training and maintenance costs will be reduced, and logistics and supply chains simplified by leveraging a common system, enabling the Air Force to fully utilize these innovative technologies and maximize battlefield effectiveness.