An Integrated Simulation Environment as a Strategy in Rotorcraft UAVs Preliminary Design

This work presents the results of the AGUSTA and UNIBO (University of Bologna) research activity associated with the CAPECON program. CAPECON is a program funded by the European Union whose main goal is to create a new UAV interest which will contribute to the technological and economic development of Europe. Inside the CAPECON project, AGUSTA and UNIBO are jointly working on the development of Rotary Wing UAVs (RWUAV) configurations. The design of a complete RWUAV system includes the project and integration of its main subsystem: the helicopter, the NGCS (Navigation Guidance & Control System) and the GCS (Ground Control Station). This paper proposes a preliminary design strategy based on a Mission Simulation Environment in order to develop this kind of system at industrial level. As a world leader in helicopter design, AGUSTA has performed the preliminary sizing of a conventional main & tail rotor configuration. Details of the configuration design process are given in the paper. To assist industrial designers during the UAV preliminary design phase, UNIBO has developed a Mission Simulation Environment prototype. It is an integrated modular system constituted by four different parts: the GCS, the Visual System, the helicopter simulator and the NGCS. Thanks to its modular architecture, this system enables fast and easy input of the helicopter preliminary sizing results for testing the complete RWUAV system. The AGUSTA configuration was tested over a wide range of missions, as defined in the CAPECON program. As an example, the results for a Fire Surveillance mission are reported in the paper.