Automated Upset Recovery System for SUAS Successfully Demonstrated in Flight

Barron Associates has developed an Automated Upset Recovery System for Small Unmanned Air Systems (SUAS) and successfully demonstrated the system through a series of flight tests on multiple fixed-wing vehicles.  The flight tests showed reliable recoveries from a variety of unusual attitude and high angular rate flight conditions, and demonstrated that the system performs well even with low-fidelity aerodynamic models derived from small quantities of flight data.  One of the highlights of the test program was demonstration of successful recovery from a challenging spin mode exhibited by one of the flying wing vehicles used in the testing.  The team demonstrated that the baseline Ardupilot autopilot software was unable to reliably recover from this spin condition, while the Barron Associates system recovered the vehicle rapidly and reliably.