| Motivated by the lack of experimental motion facilities for simulating shipboard helicopter manoeuvring operations, the Carleton Experimental Shipboard Helicopter Interface Platform (C.E.S.H.I.P.) was developed as part of a collaborative project sponsored jointly by Indal Technologies Inc. (ITI), Materials and Manufacturing Ontario (MMO), and Carleton University (CU). This thesis describes the design and commissioning of the experimental motion platform, a scale-model of the Indal Technologies Inc. (ITI) Aircraft/Ship Integrated Secure and Traverse (ASIST) system with two degrees of aircraft actuation, and a scale-model reconfigurable Dead-Load Test Vehicle (DLTV) representative of a variety of maritime helicopters. The experimental motion platform uses a single degree of actuation to produce combinations of surge, sway, heave, roll, and pitch motions with maximum amplitudes approximately representative of the tenth-scale motions of a typical frigate operating in upper sea state 5 conditions. The motion platform and associated test vehicle constitute a fundamental research tool that in the current application will be used for aircraft manoeuvring testing and to support development of autonomous manoeuvring algorithms in the presence of ship motion. The experimental platform's motion and kinematic equations were validated using a 3-axis gyro-enhanced orientation sensor. A typical manual manoeuvring procedure was then tested on the motion platform with and without ship motion and the resulting probe forces were compared to demonstrate the effects of ship motion on helicopter manoeuvring. An autonomous manoeuvring algorithm was proposed to demonstrate the potential for helicopter straightening and traversing without human intervention. Developed using an existing planar simulation, HeliMan, the autonomous algorithm was tested on the motion platform, and the results are discussed. |
