Validation of Scaled Automation Qualities Framework for Group 1 to Group 3 Vertical Lift UAS

A scalable handling qualities framework for vertical lift unmanned aerial systems has been in development since 2017. The framework uses the concept of Froude scaling to repurpose much of MIL-DTL-32742 (which supersedes ADS-33E-PRF) for handling qualities evaluation of unmanned vertical lift systems. The framework includes both predictive handling qualities quantitative metrics and mission task elements for evaluation of the flight characteristics of autonomous vertical lift aircraft. Many of the predictive requirements and mission task elements are directly scaled from the MIL-DTL-32742, however, some additional requirements have been developed explicitly to address the unmanned mission. Many elements of the framework have been flight-validated on three Group 1 UAS, a 5 lb hexacopter, a 14 lb single main rotor helicopter, and an 8 lb coaxial quadcopter. This work expands flight validation to include a 10 lb octocopter, which is a larger multicopter than has been previously evaluated within the framework. In addition, this paper extends the validation of the framework to Group 2 and Group 3 UAS in simulation, using highly accurate flight-identified models of the ADAPT scaled winged-compound helicopter, TRV-80, and TRV-150.