Simulator Evaluations of Assistive Hover Automation Concepts for a Lift Plus Cruise eVTOL Vehicle

Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles have the potential to enable cost effective Urban Air Mobility (UAM) applications. These concepts may also pose several challenging handling and control problems, which must be addressed prior to safe and efficient urban operations. This paper presents some main findings of simulator evaluations of several Assistive Hover Automation (AHA) concepts that are designed to address some of these challenges for a conceptual Lift Plus Cruise vehicle. These concepts assist pilots in capturing and maintaining a stabilized approach and hover prior to landing. The different simplified control architectures for these concepts were evaluated extensively in the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) at NASA Ames Research Center. The experiments were built upon relevant operations with additional test cases exploring variations in glidepath angles as well as environmental conditions (wind and visibility). Multiple publications are planned about the simulation findings, this paper focuses on specific performance metrics during the approach and at touchdown, combined with pilot activity. The main findings included in this paper show that the AHA concepts assist in improving performance while reducing the required pilot activity, also resulting in a more streamlined approach, transition to hover and touchdown in a shorter time.