This paper describes an autonomous guidance and flight control system that was integrated and flight-tested on a partial-authority Black Hawk helicopter. This effort was part of the Degraded Visual Environment Mitigation program, whose objective is to provide all weather capability for U.S. Army rotorcraft operations. The guidance and flight-control system software were previously flight tested on a full-authority helicopter, and for this work, was adapted to fly on a partial-authority helicopter. The main autonomy components of the system consist of the Risk Minimizing Obstacle Field Navigation algorithm, Safe Landing Area Determination algorithm, and the Integrated Cueing Environment. These components provide reactive avoidance guidance, landing site selection, and pilot situational awareness for degraded visual environments. To test the system, a LADAR was used as a surrogate-ranging device in lieu of an all-weather sensor system that was concurrently under development for the program. The autonomous partial-authority flight control system provides a fully stabilized path-following capability that is directed with a series of waypoints or flight-path vector commands. This paper describes the control system, its performance, and how it was adapted to a partial-authority system that is typical of current U.S. Army fleet helicopters. The autonomy software and human interface components are also described. Flight test results are presented of the fully integrated system navigating through terrain, selecting landing sites, and autonomously landing. Analysis is presented that compares partial-authority results to previously collected full-authority results.
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