Optimal Landing Site Selection Using Kinematic Weight Function During High Speed Approaches

An improvement to autonomous Safe Landing Area Determination (SLAD) algorithms is proposed which takes into account aircraft motion and agility. This kinematic weight function is calculated over all points of the landing area and is based on current position, minimum hover position, and minimum time to hover. This paper presents the mathematical basis behind the kinematic weight function, its implementation in the Multi-Layer Surface Map Safe Landing Area Determination (MLSM-SLAD) as an additional layer, and simulation results of tests using a virtual UH-60 helicopter with a scanning LADAR terrain sensor. It is found that using the kinematic weight function reduces landing approach duration by over 18 seconds by eliminating overshoot of the landing point chosen from data scanned during the approach.