TECHNOLOGIES FOR AUTOMATING ROTORCRAFT NAP-OF-THE-EARTH FLIGHT

This paper reviews the technologies required for automating rotorcraft nap-of-the-earth flight, where the use of natural obstacles for masking from the enemy is intentional and the danger of undesirable obstacles such as enemy traps is real. Specifically, the automatic guidance structure is modeled by three decision-making levels: the far-field mission planning and the mid-field terrain-masking trajectory shaping are both driven by stored terrain data, whereas the near-field obstacle detection/avoidance is driven by real-time, on-board sensor data. This paper summarizes the far-field and mid-field accomplishments, and reports on the status of recent efforts in obstacle detection and avoidance development. Obstacle detection is based primarily on passive imaging sensors for the desirable properties of covertness and wide field of view, although active sensors are included in the structure to provide the needed high resolution for thin-wire detection. An extensive list of references, though not exhaustive, is provided.