Development and Flight Testing of an Automated Upset Recovery System

Barron Associates has been awarded a Phase I SBIR contract to develop upset recovery technology for unmanned vehicles.  Loss of control (LOC) due to upset is one of the main causes of accidents in manned aircraft and is already emerging as a significant causal factor in unmanned aircraft accidents. On manned aircraft, recovery from an upset condition relies on the skill and training of an expert pilot. Due to reduced situational awareness and delays introduced by the command and control link, it is unlikely that a remote UAS operator will be able to serve this function. An advanced system capable of perception, cognition, and decision making is necessary to replace the need for an operator with upset recovery expertise and to mitigate the LOC risk on UAS. Under this research, Barron Associates will build on its existing two-stage architecture that generates safe and effective recovery maneuvers for a large set of upset conditions including full stall and fully-developed spin modes.  Work under the current effort will include development of enhanced upset detection capabilities and decision making logic for activating and deactivating the upset recovery system.