Helicopter Pilot Model for Pitch Attitude Tracking Task

Abstract

A helicopter pilot model as a part of the pilot-vehicle system is analyzed for the task of pitch attitude tracking in forward flight. Analytical helicopter pilot model, following the Efremov’s modification of the structural model, is defined through the optimization algorithm based on the minimum of the error variance. A set of the pilot-in-the-loop experiments were conducted at the research helicopter flight simulator with a fixed base and high fidelity visual system. In these experiments pilots were given different pitch commands visually at the primary flight display and the helicopter’s resulting pitch attitude was recorded. These results from the flight simulator experiments were used for the comparison with the results of the pilot-vehicle system with the defined analytical pilot model.