Software Enabled Control
Rotary Wing Final Experiments
25th August 2004
McKenna MOUT Site, Fort Benning, Georgia.
Welcome to the Software Enabled Control (SEC) website.
If a UAV is to explore unknown terrain it must be able to navigate clear of obstacles by re-planning using visual or other feedback. For Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), increased agility, also means that control decisions are taken on a faster timescale. Quick flight mode switching needs to occur if the aircraft is to be used at its full potential.
These issues affect all UAVs whether it is a search and rescue unit or an air combat vehicle. Scaling up from a single UAV to multiple UAV’s takes the problem to another level of complexity. The primary objective of the SEC project is to develop novel control algorithms and software architectures required to make UAVs more robust and autonomous in future. Some of the goals are..
- Mid-level coordination for mode switching in UAV’s
- Reconfigurable fault-tolerant control
- Demonstration of high-level, mid-level and low-level control for a VTOL UAV
- Demonstrate portability of algorithms to other UAV’s such as the fixed-wing X-45