A Robust Flare Planning Logic for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Applications, Phase I

Aurora Flight Sciences proposes to develop a flare planning logic that would provide aircraft guidance during this critical phase of flight. The algorithms that Aurora seeks to leverage address the reachability problem in the fields of Optimal Control and Hybrid Systems. Two competing technical approaches will beconsidered; Aurora collectively refers to them as "Safety Verification-based algorithms."To this end, Aurora proposes the innovation of applying a suitable version of these algorithms to the design of a flare maneuver guidance and planning logic. The planner will be capable of dynamically producing a flare maneuver guaranteed not to violate the aircraft flight envelope and other stipulated constraints. The planner will meet the robustness requirements stipulated in the topic solicitation; namely, it will apply to both impeded and unimpeded aircraft, and it will operate under significant weather disturbances. The main technical challenge in developing the planning logic is extending and applying the chosen control algorithms to 6-DOF aircraft dynamics models under the required variety of operating conditions. The ultimate goal of the Phase 1 effort is to explore the feasibility of applying Safety Verification-based optimal control algorithms to an appropriately sophisticated model of the aircraft dynamics during the flare maneuver.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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