Development of a generic Flight Test Maneuver Injection Module

At the Institute ofFlight System Dynamics ofthe Technical University Munich, various unmanned and optionally piloted aerial vehicles are being used to demonstrate novel flight control and flight management functions. In this context, flight tests are not only being conducted to prove functionality, but also to verify flight dynamic models, or to evaluate controller performance. Additional ground tests may be used to identify actuator dynamics. Those tests consist ofspecial maneuvers, e.g. doublets, sweeps or multi-sine signals, which are fed directly to the control loops or to the actuators. Some ofthose tests could be conducted by a pilot, but the necessary accuracy and repeatability cannot be guaranteed. More complex signals, like phase optimized multi-sines, cannot be performed manually at all. To overcome those problems a software module, executed directly on the flight control computer, was developed. It is able to inject various flight test maneuvers into different control loops or directly to the actuators. This paper presents the development of this generic Flight Test Maneuver Injection module (FTMI).     «

At the Institute ofFlight System Dynamics ofthe Technical University Munich, various unmanned and optionally piloted aerial vehicles are being used to demonstrate novel flight control and flight management functions. In this context, flight tests are not only being conducted to prove functionality, but also to verify flight dynamic models, or to evaluate controller performance. Additional ground tests may be used to identify actuator dynamics. Those tests consist ofspecial maneuvers, e.g....     »