Sunday, May 3, 2015

ASCI 638 Activity 6.6

This post is for an assignment discussing automated landing and take off systems in UAS and manned aircraft.

                                                                          Automated Systems

        Automation in manned and unmanned aircraft continues to evolve and this is particularly evident in unmanned aircraft where one of the fundamental concepts is to remove the pilot from the cockpit.  A significant automation feature in both types of aircraft is the ability to land and take off autonomously or with very little human input. For this discussion of automated systems I have selected two completely different types of aircraft.  For the unmanned system I reviewed the Kaman Aerospace/Lockheed Martin K-MAX UAS and for the manned system I selected the Airbus A-320.
       The Airbus A-320 is capable of fully automated landing including the ability to steer the aircraft on the ground, initially through rudder inputs then through nose wheel steering, it is also capable of bringing the aircraft to a complete stop when used in combination with the auto-brake system (Skybrary, 2013).  The A-320 is equipped with dual autopilots and can satisfy Category II, decision height (DH) 100 feet or greater, and Category III, DH less than 100 feet.  To engage auto-land the pilot must perform a series of operations while in autopilot beginning by selecting Instrument Landing System (ILS), then selecting Approach, the autopilot will then automatically acquire the glideslope and localizer and guide the aircraft in for landing.  The pilot must still manually lower the gear as well perform a various other functions such as setting flaps and ensuring that the second autopilot is engaged for category III (Avia Solutions Group, n.d.). In the event of a failure the pilot may take control of the aircraft and override the automated system (Avia Solutions Group, n.d.).  In a fail passive event or a failure in which there in significant deviation the pilot assumes control of the aircraft, the fail passive capability n the A-320 displayed on the pilot’s flight display by the Cat 3 single display; in the event of a fail operational event the A-320 PFD will display Cat 3 Dual and the automatic system will complete the remainder of the of the landing (The Airline Pilots.com, 2012) 
The K-MAX can be configured for numerous missions, both civilian and military however, this review centers on optionally piloted cargo configuration of the K-MAX as used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) in Afghanistan (Weinberger, 2012).  K-MAX is a unique UAS in that it is available as a traditional manned aircraft or an optionally piloted aircraft.  The optionally piloted aircraft maintains the pilot’s compartment and controls for conversion to use as a manned system (Kaman Aerospace, n.d.).  
       The K-MAX uses a satellite downlink to maintain communication between the K-MAX’s on-board avionics systems and the Mission Management Computer (MMC); the MMC can be pre-programmed with a mission plan that is then downloaded into the Flight Control Computer (FCC), which then provides inputs to the various on-board control systems (Kaman Aerospace, n.d.).  The system enables fully autonomous flight including landing and takeoff.  Optionally, the MMC can be directed to relinquish control to a ground operator at the departure, destination, or any combination thereof to allow for remote control of any part of the mission (Kaman Aerospace, n.d.).  Mission profiles can be changed in-flight by uploading new instructions to the MMC from the ground control station GCS via the satellite link while line of sight operation inputs are transmitted from the controller’s laptop, which serves as the GCS via portable antennae.  Redundant MMCs ensure reliability and are a safeguard against equipment failure. (Kaman Aerospace, n.d.). 
With regards to the A-320, improvements can be made via further automation of such features as lowering of the gear and setting of the flaps.  The ability to manually override the process is a key feature and must be retained.  Training in use of the ALS, auto-throttle and auto-brake systems, instrumentation, peculiarities of the specific installation, as well as procedures relating to inclement weather and poor braking surfaces are all required before being able to safely utilize the auto-landing feature of the A-320 (The Airline Pilots.com, 2012). 
The K-MAX appears to be a very well thought out system and I speculate that part of the reason is that the system was developed using a mature manned system and thus the manufacturers needed only develop the automation control features and interfaces.  Training must address all aspects of flight from ground control to severe weather and flight anomalies.  The crash of a K-Max in 2013 was attributed to pilot error and the highlighted the need to maintain weather awareness by pilots and ground personnel (Lamonthe, 2014). 
Safety must be paramount in design of both aircraft and associated systems and automation when accompanied by the appropriate training of crews and development of systems can significantly reduce incidents and accidents while enhancing operational capabilities.
 

References

Avia Solutions Group.  (n.d.).  Airbus A320: Auto landing tutorial.  Video.  Retrieved from                       
http://www.aviasg.com/en/video/airbus-a320-auto-landing-tutorial.html 

Kaman Aerospace.  (n.d.).  The K-MAX® Unmanned Aircraft System – A Power Lifter Transformed.  Retrieved from
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/K-MAX-brochure.pdf

General Atomics.  (20150.  Predator B RPA.  Retrieved from 
http://www.ga-asi.com/predator-b

Skybrary.  (2013, July 30).  Autoland.  Retrieved from 
http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Autoland

The Airline Pilots.com.  (2012, October 08).  Getting to grips with Cat II/Cat III operations.  Retrieved from 
http://www.theairlinepilots.com/forumarchive/quickref/cat2.pdf

Lamonthe, D.  (2014, August 7).  Why pilots cvouldn’t stop a Marine Corps drone from crashing.  The Washington Post.              
Retrieved from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/08/07/exclusive-why-pilots-couldnt-stop-a-marine-corps-  
drone-helicopter-from-crashing/

Weinberger, S.  (2012, Mar 28).  K-MAX, the military’s new delivery drone.  Popular Mechanics.  Retrieved from  
 http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a7573/k-max-the-militarys-new-unmanned-delivery-drone-7675091/





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