LOC-S: Improved model and control algorithm for a stall recovery on-board avionics system

The Trajectory Recovery System (TRS), developed at the Florida Institute of Technology, is a proof-of-concept inflight loss of control due to stalls (ILOC-S) guidance recovery avionic system prototype. When sensing a stall, this on-board technology replaces the pilot's primary flight display (PFD) with a custom designed one, which includes only pitch attitude data and a target that prompts the pilot to follow it. A successful following of the target causes the aircraft to recover from the stall. This paper focuses on the method of control that the system utilizes to function, including the design of a potential automated controller, and the requirements to implement it in a flight simulator. The TRS has been successfully integrated in a Boeing 737-800 simulator at the Human-Centered Design Institute, and has undergone both development flight tests as well as expert-pilot experimentation. The challenges involved with performing stall experimentation in a flight simulator have also been explained in this paper.