Autonomous Rotary Wing Hoist Rescue Load Stability System - Stokes Litter Attachment

The objective of the Phase II effort is to demonstrate the 1st autonomous, unmanned hoist rescue stability system through live flight trials with the USAF 129th RQS. Under the Phase I effort, Vita identified USAF Search and Rescue (SAR) pilots and flight engineers who detailed the severity of rotary wing rescue missions due to adverse conditions attributed to environmental elements, scenario attributes, flight dynamic side effects, degraded communications, and enemy threats. Such adverse conditions cause complicating, dangerous, and mission aborting suspended litter oscillatory and rotational motion that result in injuries & mishaps . Vita proposed reconfiguring an autonomous motion control solution for sling load operations, the Load Stability System – Sling Load (LSS-SL), to a SAR equipped version, the LSS-Litter Attachment (LSS-LA). The proposed system shall stabilize suspended litter oscillatory and rotational motion autonomously by sensing motion, localizing, then exerting counter thrust sourced from high energy electric duct fans. The LSS-LA is platform agnostic in that it does not require any power or data interface, enabling rapid deployment in all SAR missions.