Aircraft Autolander Safety Analysis Through Optimal Control-Based Reach Set Computation

Abstract

and safety analysis of autoland systems. It is shown to be applicable to specific phases of landing: descent, flare, and touchdown. The method is based on optimal control and level set methods; it simultaneously computes a maximal controlled invariant set and a set-valued control law guaranteed to keep the aircraft within a safe set of states under autopilot mode switching. The method is applied to the sequenced flap and slat deflections of a simplified model of a DC9-30. The paper concludes with a demonstration of the method on higher dimensional aircraft models.