Mission Management and Landing Assistance for an Unmanned Rotorcraft for Maritime Operations

Unmanned rotorcraft operated from ships could be used in surveillance or rescue missions in maritime environments. Starting from and landing on a moving ship deck is a challenging task, though. For this purpose, mission management and landing strategies have to be tailored compared to land-based operations of unmanned rotorcraft. This paper focuses on the investigation of supporting functions and systems for the operation of unmanned rotorcraft from larger vessels. Relative navigation with the aid of double-differences can be used for guiding the rotorcraft precisely to the moving target. The landing task is complicated by ship deck motions varying with the sea state. Therefore, a tether connection is proposed for landing assistance. For autonomous operations a ground control station is necessary on the vessel. The control station is used for mission management including supervision and control of the rotorcraft, the tether system and for payload operations. Mission management and landing assistance have been tested successfully in a land-based flight testing campaign.